LIKES MY BROTHER

So, my brother came to visit us and he was just a little bit timid about what Beignet might do to him, so his approach was hesitant. That set the mood for Beignet and she was a little timid about him. After he had been here for three days she had grown attached to him and his interactions with her. I asked her if she liked having him come to visit and the reply was a nod of the head, "Yes!". Then I asked her if she would like him to come again to visit and the reply was lots of head nodding. Having a good question and answer relationship with a parrot is a wonderful thing.

A couple of days ago Beignet said this without any pauses in between and at a rapid pace, "I love you sweetheart girl want more water step up." I'm not quite sure when she practices because I never hear the timed practicing. It must be done in her head. It was sure a rattle of a long sentence.

Beignet is growing in her abilities to be touched. Recently she has offered her wing to me to scratch and has begun allowing me to preen her pin feathers which are so itchy for her. I have been having her step up every time she gets a piece of food from me. It seems that this repeated contact has helped her to grow. She knows that I will put her back as soon as she gets the food and it creates trust. Parrots don't like a lot of change in their lives and trust is the one thing that is unchanging. Once trust is established it seldom goes away. I'm touched to have this amount of trust from a bird that was so badly abused by humans.

I LOVE YOU

Last night when I told Beignet good night I told her about my brother coming to see me. When she was captive in her abused situation there was a bird that ended up named Jordan that she lived with for 1 1/2 years after her rescue. She was very close to him. I refer to him as her brother, because it is the only bird family she has. She clearly has fond memories of him. We talked about it for quite a while and I told her again that I had a brother that was coming to visit too. Then I said that I was so sorry that we don't know where Jordan lives. We were both very sad and she reached over and kissed me in her special way.

This morning as I was making coffee we were in our usual banter of "want more cracker" which is the Quinoa cereal I make for us. Then she sweetly said, "I love you,", which is not uncommon during this banter. I replied, "I love you too, Beignet." Then immediately without hesitation she replied, "I MORE!".

First I am continually surprised at her reference to herself as "I", and secondly I now understand the importance of discussing past events with parrots, especially Beignet.

I am beginning to lack understanding of what divides us from the parrot species in intelligence. Clearly they can think, reason, feel, and even wait for things to happen. They can understand future tense and they accurately understand all of their surroundings. They form attachments to favorite things. They can also have the same destructive vices that humans have such as smoking, overeating and alcohol abuse. The parrot version of this is feather plucking (used to, doesn't anymore), chewing on things, and screaming (doesn't much). They form long standing bonds and love with parrots and with people, and they are fairly tolerant of people they don't love. Here I speak only of Beignet, for she is the only parrot that I know. A new definition has to be forthcoming, as we are finding this with more and more animals. The definition of human in my world has changed.