Kids' book read in 70s/80s, side character has pet bird(?) named Sweetie Petey (or Petie?), might be an Encyclopedia Brown story.

[Karen Beaudrie]

I don't have much more information, except that I keep thinking this was an Encyclopedia Brown mystery and that "Sweetie Petey" ended up being part of the solution in the end. The name just pops into my head now and again, and it bugs me that I can't place it for sure.

[Orsolya Könyvtáros (formerly Memp)]

Could this have been Encyclopedia Brown's Book of Wacky Animals? It's not a book of mystery stories but a collection of anecdotes. This one appears on pg. 51:

"Veterinarian Bill Willis didn't know what to think when Steve and Sandra Stewart brought their tiny Boston terrier puppy, Sweetie Pie, to his animal hospital in Marianna, Florida, in 1981. The dog had thrown up several pennies and wouldn't eat.
Willis operated.
'I've taken everything out of dogs from corncobs, nuts, bottle nipples, rubber stoppers, bones, needles with thread-- you name it,' Willis said. 'But I've never seen or heard of anything to compare to this.'
From Sweetie Pie's stomach came 80 cents in coins, a piece of lead the size of a quarter, a staple, and a metal shoe from a Monopoly game. The 3 1/2-pound puppy had been carrying around half a pound of metal-- one-seventh of its body weight!"

[Karen Beaudrie]

Thank you, but no. It was definitely Sweetie Petey/Petie, not Sweetie Pie.