Telephones

Do you have telephones in your house? We do, and I think they're just wonderful. First of all, whenever one gets dialed, it makes the most interesting beeping noises, and I beep right along with them. Also, my person talks to the telephone frequently, and I just love the sound of her voice when she does that. I snuggle up under her chin and chirp and coo while she talks. Last night while we were
doing this, the telephone started talking to me! It said, "Hi, Shadow. Pretty bird. Pretty bird." So I said "Pretty bird" right back to it! Then I noticed the buttons on the phone and reached out my beak to chew one, but before I could get even one bite, my person moved the phone away. Then she put me in my cage. Hmmmph! I keep thinking about all those delicious buttons just waiting to be chewed. One day I'll find a way to get my beak on them. You'll see. Anyhow, I just love telephones and I think every house should have at least one.

Table Manners

OK, that gray parrot, Trouble, may know how to talk, but she doesn't know how to eat right. She has no table manners at all. My person let her come to the breakfast table the other day and what you think she did? She just stuck her beak in the cereal bowl and started flinging cereal all over the place. Me, I never fling. When I eat cereal, I let the crumbs drop to the floor, and when I am done nibbling on a piece, I let that drop to the floor, too, before I pick up another one. That's what floors are for. Duh.

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?