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.