Friday, August 7, 2009

Stella stories

Last night, while making dinner, I accidentally left a lower cabinet door open. Stella swooped down to investigate.Hmm... what's in there? Just dishes! Nothing interesting for parrots!
As an aside, I'd always heard that it's hard for parrots to learn to fly down, so it's a skill that people who live with flighted birds should practice with them in case the bird escapes as more than likely, they'll have to fly down to safety. While I've found that to be true with my other flighted birds (Ethel, Daphne, Max, and Beeps), Stella apparently didn't get that message. She is constantly flying down! Aside over.

She tried to open the drawer, but hasn't yet got that skill down:
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We often don't answer our phone at home since it's usually telemarketers or other people we don't want to speak to. Yesterday, Thomas and Rocky were showering, the greys were in the kitchen, and I was in the living room. The phone rang. After three rings, it stopped, I heard a crash, and the machine never picked up. I went into the kitchen to investigate. Stella had managed to knock the phone off of the cradle and push the button to answer it! By the time I got there, the person on the other side had hung up, so all I heard was a dial tone. I wish I would have caught this on videotape!

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Thomas is working night float again, which means shifts of 8 pm - 8 am during the week and 6 pm - 8 am on weekends. It's horrible! However, he does eat breakfast with the parrots when he gets home in the morning, so they like that.

This morning, Stella really wanted some of his cereal. First, she flew to the back of his chair. Then she flew to his head. Finally, she flew to the table and helped herself:Of course, then Max had to come over so there was a little fight over his grapenuts.

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Since Thomas is on this weird schedule, he has to sleep during the day. The parrots are quiet in general, but make noise for the first 30-60 minutes after he goes to bed in the morning. They know he's home and don't understand why they're in their cages. Luckily, it's nothing upsetting (like Rocky screaming), but he told me there's a lot of bell-ringing, whistling, and beeping. Frequently, the greys will get going, and call out, "Hello! Wanna come out? Up! Come here! Gimme kisses! How are you doing? Wanna come out?" It can be hard to resist them when they're talking like that, so he turns the fan on high to block them out and tries to get some sleep.

We'll all be happy when this month is over and he can go back to a more or less normal work schedule!

1 comment:

Parrot Toys said...

Funny about the phone. My Grey has just learned how to answer the phone. Luckily, like you I don't get to many important calls on the home line.