I had never wanted a peacock for the same reason I’d never wanted a koala or a narwhal: The idea had never occurred to me. But when adopting three of those fantastical birds suddenly became an option, well, of course I wanted peacocks. Only later could I appreciate what Carl, Ethel, and Mr. Pickle had given me.

LitHub: On the Care and Keeping of Mythological Apparitions

“You can’t have one peacock,” I told her on the drive home. “He’d be lonely.”