Nudge

Sometimes even the best of people need a little reminder. While I’m the first to acknowledge that my person is very kind and attentive, even she needs a little nudge every once in a while. The other day it was about my seed treat, which my person gives me every afternoon. Sometimes it comes early, sometimes later, but it always tastes good whenever it arrives. The other day, my person had happened to leave the seed treat container out on top of the cabinet instead of inside it, so I had a good view of it from my cage. All afternoon I was eyeing that treat container, wondering when my person would finally open it up and give me my treat. Every time she went near it, I thought, “Now! Now! I’m finally going to get my treat!” But it didn’t happen. The day dragged on, the sky started to grow dark, and still my treat hadn’t appeared. I realized I would have to take matters into my own beak, so to speak. So I left the comfort of my cage and flew over to the treat container and started poking around it, trying to find the way in. Finally my person realized what I was doing and, full of apologies, she opened the container and gave me my treat. At least she didn’t make me chew all the way through the lid myself. Not that I couldn’t, but can you imagine! It would’ve taken a good while. The treat tasted delicious and I forgave my person for her forgetfulness right away. After all, nobody’s perfect, right?

Giving Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. This year I’m giving thanks for all the friends who surround me:
- the furnace, who keeps us warm all winter
- the toaster oven, who ticks and dings and makes delicious toast for me to eat
- the coffeepot, who entertains me with its gurgling noises
- the refrigerator, who keeps my walnuts fresh and tasty
- the paper shredder and the pencil sharpener, who are always ready for an interesting conversation
- Trouble the gray parrot, who always brings grapes when she comes to visit
- my person, who takes good care of me and one day might buy me my very own grapes

Talking on the Telephone

Do you like telephone conversations? I really enjoy them. When my person is talking on the telephone, I snuggle right up next to her throat so as not to miss a word. Usually I just sit there and listen, but sometimes I chatter and chirp right along with her. I like telephone dialing, too. Love those beeps! Sometimes I listen and sometimes I beep, too. Another good thing about the phone is the buttons on the dial. When my person isn’t looking, I can sometimes sneak in a few good chews on those buttons before she notices. When you think about, it’s easy to see what a useful thing a telephone is. What about you? Do you like telephones?

Treats For Breakfast

How I love tea! My person usually drinks coffee, so it’s a special day when a steaming mug of tea appears on the table. This morning the tea showed up at breakfast time, right when I was enjoying my morning walnuts. Walnuts and tea! Walnuts and tea! It was so exciting to have two such delicious treats at once that I didn’t know what to do. Finally I snuggled up next to the tea mug to nibble on my walnut, but I touched the mug with my beak every so often just to make sure it was still there. Then I climbed up to the rim of the mug, dropped a few walnut crumbs inside, and took several long delicious sips of tea. What a lucky parrot I am!

Yet Another Kind of Predator

My person keeps a drawer full of predators. She says they’re bottles of paint that she uses to decorate things, but I know they’re really predators. Not that any of them have ever actually tried to attack me, but I know a predator when I see one. Apparently, my person doesn’t, so it’s up to me to protect us. Whenever one of those paint bottles comes out of the drawer, I have to fluff up my feathers and puff out my wings and put on my mean vulture look. Then I lunge. If the paint bottle happens to be in my person’s hand when I attack, then a finger might get bitten in the process. That always makes her mad. I keep trying to tell her that it’s dangerous to hold a predator in your hand, but she just doesn’t get it.

Yum!

Do you like cookies? I loooove cookies. Fortunately, my person likes to bake them almost as much as I like to eat them. This week we’ve been eating Halloween cookies. My person cut them into weird shapes, like skulls and bats. I don’t care so much about the shapes, though. I just like the eating part. I have a real sweet beak. I like ice cream, too. I pretty much like to eat anything sweet. What about you? Do you have a sweet beak? What kinds of treats do you like to eat?

Mad

Don’t you just hate it when your person goes out and stays out ALL DAY, leaving you all by yourself in your cage? That’s what happened yesterday and I was just soooo mad! What does she expect me to do all day all by myself in my cage? After I ate my pellets and tossed some apple pieces around the cage and played with my toothbrush, well, then what was I supposed to do? I talked with the furnace for a while and had a brief conversation with the refrigerator, but I have to say, conversation with those two gets boring pretty quickly as they never seem to have anything new to say. By the time my person finally got home I was pretty mad, but then I was so happy to see her, I just squawked with joy and sat on her shoulder and snuggled up to her neck. People. You just can’t stay mad with them long, no matter what they do.