its my day off. days off of a parront are not the same as your average person's days off. there's cages to clean. poo papers to replace. wood to cut. toys to make. and of course the absolute most important tasks: parrot cuddling and parrot playtime.
so i'm sitting here on the sofa, minding my own business pretending i'm a normal person and trying to watch tv. thank goodness i have closed captions. cause caleb keeps reminding me (and the neighbors) that i have two of the loudest parrot species kept in captivity... right here... in this house.
so fortunately its a movie i've seen a thousand times... no really, literally a thousand times. he's watching the neighbor's kids outside playing soccer. he yells out 'oh dear!' as he watches them. when he honks loudly they stop and look his way. he yells out 'awwww $hit!!' after a confused look they go back to playing and he goes back to hollering. he speaks both too-ese and english, intermixing the languages to get his point across. he stops watching them to look at me and happily exclaim 'hello!' as if he just noticed i was here. then goes back to watching the kids and holler at them "oh yeah!! goooo!! <mutter mutter> awwww $hit! aww good burd! " he stops watching the kids to clear off the top of his cage. tossing everything but his food and water with vigor! basket? nope dont want it! bowl of noodle bits? nope, doesnt go here! stainless steel bucket? humph! how did that get up here??? turns to try and lure me into his room for a play session. he says to me "hey boy! where boy?? drew? boy bye?" what he's asking is where my son is... aka THE BOY aka DREW. once i've made it clear my son is out for the evening, he says 'hey luv burd?? hey ya! pretty pretty burd?? hey luuuuvvv!!!' now who in their right mind could ignore that???
try again to sit and watch some more of my movie...
marley decides he wants to play fetch with his favorite toy: jingle barrel. he grabs it in his beak and tosses it down to me. i pick it up and toss it back as he stands eagerly on the rail that runs round the top of his cage. he snatches it out of midair, gives it a good shake and tosses it across the room. i fetch it... i'm good at fetching.
i toss it up on top of his cage. he happily leaps off the rail, hops like a kangaroo across the cage to pounce on the toy! he rolls on his back, holding the toy in his beak as he kicks it frantically with both feet. rolls over quickly and in two great leaps is across the cage with the toy in his beak, one more little hop and he's back on the rail and drops it down to me. i grab it outta the air and toss it back, he grabs it outta the air and tosses it back to me! if i could catch worth a crap, the game would probably go on but i cant. so i go get it and toss it back to him. he giggles as it zooms past and leaps off the rail, hopping like a little feathery bunny after his toy. grabs it up in his beak and hops once, stops to beat the tar outta the toy, slamming it repeatedly against the floor. leaps back up, hops to the rail and gives it a good toss! it flies across the room! i jump up to retrieve it happily yelling at him 'good throw!' and he happily yells back to me 'pretty pretty marley!!' when i toss it back to him he misses yet again (i dont throw any better than i catch!) and hops eagerly across the top of the cage grabs it in his beak and starts to run toward the rail, he trips and does a complete face plant into the top of the cage! jumps up again, laughing like a loon and hops to the rail. the game goes on and on. at one time the games would go on for hours, literally. but these days about 30 mins is his max. an hour long game is a happy day for us both. he stops for a snack, some nice juicy black grapes. climbs down to my shoulder for a ride to his favorite window.... but he's gone into overload :deer: his eyes whirling like little red kaleidoscopes, his wings standing away from his body like little hearts, his feathers all standing out! a deadly creature looking for blood. but lucky me, i know his 'Xanax' : laughter. i begin happily laughing at him and immediately he's back to his normal happy go lucky self, laughing along with me. so its back to the cage for another short, maybe 10 minute, game of fetching, jumping, giggling, and rolling. then he's scaling my arm to the top of my head for a bit of hair preening and surfing. finally settling in for a little preening session before we begin getting ready for bed.
now as the sun sinks in the west and its darkening outside everybirdie is ready for bed. caleb is doing circles on top of his cage honking loudly, his signal that he's ready to be tucked in. skittles is eating his final snack, going from bowl to bowl to be sure he gets a balanced nite nite meal. ollie? he's on his favorite perch waiting patiently for me to announce its bedtime so he can have his last Ritz of the day. marley, worn out from his vigorous game of fetch, is happily chilling on his cotton wreath. and twiggy is carefully preening her boing. yup, its time to tuck them all in for a nice rest and then get myself tucked in... ya see when ya get up with the chickens.. er uh... parrots, ya go to bed with 'em too.
