[David S]

How many times have you read the warnings here about nonstick cookware and thought "That'll never happen to me?" Well, I'm one of those folks. However, I did grudgingly get rid of my nonstick Calphalon when I got Tango, my first parrot. I replaced it with a set of heavy stainless and my old faithful cast iron skillet. I guess I'm just paranoid enough to be afraid that an accident **could** happen. Well that accident happened yesterday.

I live in an old house with an old stove; one which the burners are turned on with push buttons. Yesterday I was trying to get the birds fed, Grant (my 10 y/o son) fed and returned to his Mom's house and get on the road to pick up Diego... and in my haste, I told Grant to just climb up on the counter and find himself something to eat in the cupboards. He did..... and somehow he accidentally hit the button for one of the burners and turned it on high. My cast iron skillet was on that burner (I use it so much it stays on the top of the stove). I had just gotten out of the shower and smelled something "hot". At first I thought it was the heat pump but went into the kitchen anyway. The skillet was smoking and almost white hot. I removed it from the burner, turned the burner off and opened the kitchen door. There wasn't much smoke in the house at all, and Gideon and Marley were none the worse for wear from the incident..... BUT... what if the pan HAD been nonstick? What if I hadn't removed all of that from my home two years ago? Every "what if" I can think of equates to two dead birds. Because I heeded the many warnings posted here, those two birds are alive and healthy and quite well.

If you use nonstick cookware and think that this "accident" can't happen to you, think again. And if you want to continue using your nonstick cookware, thinking this won't happen to you, just picture your beloved fids dead in the bottoms of their cages. It CAN happen to you.