More Rocky blathering

First, let me thank everyone for your kind comments about Rocky and our situation. I wanted to write about some of the comments, and thought it might be better to do so in a post instead of in the comments because I feel this might get long.

Richard, you are absolutely right that if I were that unhappy with him, or more importantly, if I thought he was miserable with us, I would work to find him another home. However, I don't think things will ever get that far with him. As much as I complain about him, he makes me laugh every single day. My life is definitely more interesting, colorful, and even better for having him in it.

A few months ago I must have been doing a little too much complaining about him (this was during the almost constant screaming phase) because the woman who runs the rescue where I volunteer told me that she had another home lined up for him! I told her thanks, but no thanks. When I mentioned this to Thomas, he freaked out. "That's my macaw! He's not going anywhere!"

The destructiveness I can handle (I was a bit unclear in my post); it's really the screaming and the jumping attacks that are more troubling. Intellectually, I know that it's just his hormones and that things will improve. I also try not to let it bother me at home because I know it's not his fault. He's not trying to annoy me, and he's probably as upset and confused by how he feels as I am.

Tess, thank for the good vibes; those senegals can be pretty tenacious! Good luck to you in getting them to coexist peacefully.

June, my friend with amazons and I have been e-mailing quite a bit lately and swapping amazon/Rocky stories. Her amazons are noisy, but at least it's talking or singing, not squawking/screaming (though I know there are amazons that do squawk/scream). About the attacks, though, if he doesn't calm down soon, we'll have to clip him and work on his behavior some more, hoping that he can someday earn the ability to keep flight. Knock on wood, no one was attempted attacked yesterday or yet this morning. (I say attempted attack because though he has been jumping us, we've managed to duck out of the way in time or get him off of us before he bites).

Shannon, you are right in that it is heartbreaking. I look at him, and I just want to make him happy, and I keep thinking, "He can't be happy if he's screaming this much." I need to start remembering what Beloved Parrot wrote a few weeks ago about how maybe screaming does make him happy. But when we were in Costa Rica with the wild scarlet macaws, we barely heard screams, and certainly not constantly.

Part of me wants to shake him and say, "You have to know how good you've got it! Start acting like it!" But I know you can't reason with parrots. He was locked alone in a back room with almost no human interaction for at least six years. Even with his dislike of me (which I'm going to probe in a future post), our house must be an exponentially better experience for him.

To conclude and try not to be ridiculously lengthy, we'll get through this. As much as Rocky irritates us, he has wormed his way into our hearts and, as Richard said about his macaw, we wouldn't trade him for anything.