Read aloud

Do you like to have stories read to you? I love it. Of course, as I am sure I have mentioned before, my favorite story to hear is If You Were a Parrot, by my person, Katherine Rawson. But I enjoy listening to other stories, too. When my person writes stories, she often reads them aloud to hear how they sound. They always sound great to me. I chirp to show my enthusiasm. To me, the best part of a story is not the plot or characters or setting. It’s the sound of the words. I love to hear a story with words that sound good. What kinds of stories to you like to hear?

Turkeys

There are lots of wild turkeys living around here. Sometimes I can hear them gobbling. It’s an interesting sound. Sometimes I see them in the field scratching around on the ground looking for food. That doesn’t look too safe to me. I think a tree branch is a much better place to be when you’re outside where all the predators are. But I guess turkeys are too dumb to know that. That’s probably why they get caught and eaten for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You’ve never heard of anyone eating roast parrot for Thanksgiving or Christmas, have you? Of course not! That’s because we parrots are way too smart to get caught in a situation like that.

Lots of Changes

We finally got the power back, but that didn't mean things got back to normal. My cage is not in the living room any more, but it's not back in my old room either. It's in an entirely new room in an entirely new house. My person says that this is where we will be living now. I guess it's all right, but nobody told me about it or asked me if I wanted to change houses or anything. All these changes are very confusing for a little green parrot like me. But I guess my new room is OK. Most important, I still have my cage, and most of the rest of the furniture looks the same. One really nice thing is that the walls of my new room are green. . . just like me!

Powerless

The worst part of a power outage is the change in routine. We parrots really like routines and when something about the daily schedule changes, it's really discombobulating (we like big words too!). Also, if your person puts your cage in a different place, that's kind of confusing, too. For the past three days, my cage has been in the living room. My person says it's because it's warmer in there near the wood stove. I guess I like being warm, but I really would rather be in my own room like always. The fire is pretty interesting though. It makes all kinds of neat noises like crackling and roaring. I am very interested in it. Unfortunately, my person won't let me get anywhere near it. All in all, despite the interesting wood stove, I think I would have to say that power outages are confusing and not entirely comfortable. I hope this one is over soon.

Love to Eat!

There are so many fun and tasty things to eat. At the top of my list, of course, are sunflower seeds and walnuts. YUM-MY! I’d do anything for a sunflower seed or walnut. Actually, I’m pretty lucky because my person puts a couple of bits of walnut in my food dish everyday. I also love anything made of corn—cereal, bread, corn kernels, corn on the cob, etc. Carrots are good, too. It’s really fun to chew a carrot and let the juicy orange bits fly all over the place. And I love sinking my beak into a pile of mashed potatoes. I like eating ice cream once in a while. I scrape up little bits with the sharp tip of my beak, then stick out my tongue and lick it off. It’s cold, but sweet. What else? Oh, berries are great because they’re filled with seeds. Green beans are too. Did you know that? It’s true. If you open up a green bean, you’ll find some pretty tasty seeds inside. Of course I eat my pellets everyday, but I like to eat other things too. What about you? What are some of your favorite things to eat?

Free Time

It may be hard to believe, but even a busy parrot like me gets some free time. Of course, I have to spend time everyday preening my pretty green feathers, and I have to devote a good part of the day to eating, too. Then, it’s my duty to keep an eye out for predators and to squawk as loud as I can if any come near. But despite this busy schedule, I do also get some free time every day. Usually, I choose to spend that time chewing things. My favorite things to chew are bottle caps and popsicle sticks. I chew them up, then drop the pieces in my food dish. That’s really fun to do. I love chewing books, too, whenever I can get my beak near one. However, those occasions are rare as my person is very protective of her books, so I really have to sneak to get near one. It’s the same with pencils. But I often get newspapers and paper bags to shred, and that’s fun. Chewing and shredding are great ways to spend some free time. What about you? How do you like to spend your free time?

Snow

I’m sure glad I have a nice, cozy cage inside a comfortable, warm house because today the outside is covered with slushy snow. And snow is another thing that’s on my list of predators. It looks OK when it’s lying quietly on the ground, but don’t let appearances fool you. Snow has this mischievous way of sliding off the roof or jumping off of tree branches right when you least expect it. It goes flying past the window, then lands on the ground with a heavy thump. You’d better believe I start squawking when I see that go by my window. That scary snow keeps me busy all day long squawking and squawking to keep it out of the house and away from my cage. Nope, you just can’t trust snow.