Guest Blogger: Trouble

Shadow has kindly allowed me to write a guest post on her blog while I am staying at her house this week. As you can see from the photo, I am having a wonderful time here. For two nights in a row, Shadow's person has served me the most delicious dessert -- ice cream topped with whipped cream. Yummy! I just love sticking my beak into those soft mounds of whipped cream. The ice cream is pretty good, too. Actually, it's really frozen yogurt. It's made just down the road from here at Cobb Hill. My favorite flavor is peppermint chocolate chip (Shadow's person removes the chocolate chips from my servings). Actually, that's the only flavor I've had so far. But I wouldn't mind having it every night for a week. I hope I get to! So, my person can stay out of town as long as he wants. OK, I don't really mean that. I miss him, but eating Cobb Hill frozen yogurt kind of makes up for his absence.

New Business

Since I am a parrot of many talents, I've decided that I might as well put some of my talents to use, so I am starting my own small parrot business. Have you been wondering what to do with all those old telephone books you have lying around the house? Well, wonder no more. Just contact Shadow's Telephone Book Shredding Service. I will gladly come to your house and shred all the old telephone books you have lying around. Then you can use the pieces as packing material or compost filler or, and I recommend this the most, just let it fly all around your house. It looks really cool. I guarantee highly professional service. I am a skilled and experienced telephone book shredder, and you can see an example of my recent work in the photo.

New Year's Resolutions

That scary white stuff is all over the place outside, but I'm safe and warm inside in my cage with my walnuts and seed treats. It's the last day of the year and time for my parrot new year's resolutions. For 2013, I resolve to squawk as much as I can and eat as many walnuts as I can and be as cute as I can, and I also resolve to welcome everyone who visits our house with lots of preening and I'll try not to squawk too loudly in their ears but I'm not making any guarantees because I am, after all, a parrot.

Talking and Squawking

We had a visitor over Thanksgiving -- Miss Duke, an African grey parrot, kind of like Trouble but a little bigger. She's quite the talker. And not only that, she rings like a telephone and beeps like an answering machine and then makes noises like a telephone conversation. My person thought it was very interesting and paid a lot of attention to Miss Duke and laughed and laughed when she talked. Hmmmmph! Well, I can beep like a microwave oven or a telephone, too! And I can say "Pretty bird" all day long if I want to. But my feeling is that just about anything else I might want to say is easily conveyed with a few loud squawks, so what's the point of using all those other words?

It's Winter

I woke up this morning to find a whole bunch of that scary white stuff all over the place outside. My person says it's just a dusting. Dusting or not, you won't see me going outside until everything is green again like my pretty feathers. And even then I might not go out much. I didn't go outside in my carrier a lot last summer. I mean, why do that when you have a nice cozy cage inside and food dish that's always full?

The Thankful Parrot

Well, it's that time of year again -- Thanksgiving -- and time for my annual thankful blog. This year, as always, I am thankful to be a parrot and not a turkey. I am thankful to have a comfortable cage and a food dish that always is filled with tasty things to eat. I am thankful for my daily seed treats. I am thankful to have a kind person who feeds me and pets me and gives me a seed treat every afternoon, even though sometimes she yells at me when I chew her things or bite her and even though sometimes she makes me stay in my cage when I don't want to be there and even though sometimes she goes out all day and leaves me alone at home and even though sometimes she uses that scary vacuum cleaner near my cage and even though sometimes she plays with predatory things like scissors that I have to protect her from, but I love her anyway.

Running with Scissors

My person has been playing with scissors a lot recently and it's really freaking me out. She doesn't seem to understand how predatory they are. Every time she picks up the scissors, I have to bite her ear and squawk at her to warn her that danger is near, but she doesn't get it. She just gets mad at me. Sheesh! I'm only trying to protect her. Then she just leaves the scissors lying there on the table, so I have to fly over and attack them. It sure takes a lot of work to protect my person from predators. I wish she would just put those mean scissors away for good.