BIG OUCH!

We have been getting ready to move to our new house and that has included getting some carpet samples to look at. They were sitting up against an end table when we went to bed for the night. Beignet's cage gets closed for the evening so the cats can't bother her when we are not around. In the middle of the night I heard "CLUMP" and then a frightening flopping of bird and feathers. I sprang out of bed to check on Beignet and she seemed to have just been frightened, but okay. The carpet sample had been pulled over by one of the cats. I reassured her and returned to bed. The next morning when I went to open her cage for the day I was horrified to see flight feathers all over the cage. She had one flight feather remaining on her right wing. After many tender words to her I realized that all of her wing had caught in the slats of the cage and they had been traumatically pulled out. I felt horrible for her and knew that her wing must be bruised and hurting.

The very frustrating part of this event is that Beignet loves to have a daily flight around the house. She can't fly until she gets her flight feathers back (she lost the last one, too). On the positive side, she took a shower and two baths today. It seems the new feathers are working hard on coming in and she is trying to relieve them by bathing.

It is like having a child - this having a bird. They have a bad night and you soothe them, the fall and you kiss them to make it better. How I love this little gal!

MEMORY OF PAST EVENTS

Beignet has the ability to remember past events and respond to them. I had my husband hold seven crackers and asked Beignet number questions about them which she answered correctly the first time with 100% accuracy. The next day it occurred to me that she might be able to remember that. I asked her different number questions about the crackers and she answered all of those questions correctly. These included subtraction and addition. At this point her math skills are only limited by my number of fingers, so we have begun work with an abacus.

Beignet also remembers old friends, Jordan and Isabo and remembers when she moved to our house. She also remembers her first trainer well and with great adoration. When she saw a photo of Kelly Balance, she kissed it and stayed at it for several minutes.

We had to be gone for a night to move some of our things from the house we just sold. We had explained that we would be gone "one bedtime" and that we would be back at the next bedtime. Beignet understands the passage of time well. Due to a situation beyond our control we couldn't return the second night, but the following morning late. Our neighbor said that Beignet cried all that morning. We felt horrible that she had missed us so much at our promised return time. We always leave adequate food and water for up to three days, and she had plenty, but she grieved because we had not returned. Poor baby!

I have begun to think that I have to treat Beignet as if she were a young child and assume the same type of responsibility for her feelings, as she has many emotions. I think it is easy to think of an African Grey as just a pet, but it is not so for this dear parrot. Her emotional level is higher than most Grey's and her intelligence level is that of a six to seven year old child. We are just beginning to tap into that intelligence.