Strangest gift I've ever received? What's yellow, loud, annoying and shits everywhere?

Agnetha

For Christmas one year, my sister's godfather produced a wrapped bird cage with two canaries in it. Fresh off our trip to Egypt, my sister, Cristina, and I named the birds Cleopatra and Tutankhamun.

Gifting pets is odd, that's number one. Number two, gifting pets to two young girls without consulting their parents is a bold-ass move. Forcing people to own pet birds? Also not cool. And the fact that we had a Siamese cat who wanted nothing move than to claw their beady little eyes out rendered the situation one giant, miserable, bird-shit mess.

As much as we would've wanted to regift our heinous feathered friends, alas we had no such chance. My mother decided to get rid of the birds in her very own way. She took their cage out to the balcony one day so she could clean it - a task that I'm sure she was thrilled about in the first place. She opened their cage, walked away and, just as she had plotted, they were gone when she came back. Cristina and I thought for a very long time that they had died of mysterious causes, much like Cleopatra and Tutankhamun themselves. A few years ago, my mom fessed up that their disappearance was not so accidental.