I used to be a normal person, until I met a parrot. Not any parrot. Normal people don’t argue with parrots about coffee drinks. Even normal parrot people don’t argue with their parrots about coffee drinks. But Princess Tara isn’t a normal parrot. I stopped being a normal person the fateful day I walked into Charlie’s Bird Store below Seattle’s Pike Place Market and walked out with a gigantic beautiful blue hyacinth macaw parrot with a four foot wingspan.

Sure, she looks normal. Normal as any gigantic gorgeous brilliantly cobalt blue-feathered hyacinth macaw parrot might look. Completely blue from the tip of her lengthy tail to the crown of her enormous head. Completely blue except for that huge black beak and those inscrutable coal black eyes set on either side of her face. Coal black orbs set in rings of stunning bare yellow skin.

Although parrot people are thought to be crazy, I didn’t stop being a normal person because I got a parrot. I stopped being a normal person because I got a parrot who just happens to be a princess. And a witch. A witch with a coffee addiction. A witch named Princess Tara.