Do the Math - Part 1

To help explain the previous post about Sparty and the Culuh, here is a little background info on Pumpkinhead...

DO THE MATH, part 1

Pumpkinhead and Guff have lived together and with me since 1989. They are orange wing amazons and my heart and soul, respectively. They know me better than anyone on this Earth.

When Mozart first came to live with us and I subsequently discovered his telepathic abilities, my first reaction was to think he was a genius, a bird genius. Surely he must be a magician, a totally unique creature to be able to read the minds of humans and converse like one!

"Surely he must be a magician..."

I was unaware that my thoughts were rolling through the population of my animal sanctuary like the evening tide. There were many unusual reactions to my supposition about Mozart. Among them, Pumpkinhead, I would discover along the way, was piqued that I thought Mozart was special just because he could read my thoughts. So Pumpkinhead set about to show me that Mozart was just an ordinary old cockatoo no smarter, perhaps wiser, but no smarter than any other bird, or beast for that matter.

He began to seize every opportunity to show me that he was just as talented as Mozart. One day I discovered to my dismay that Guff had a bad cold. It was the weekend and my vet was on vacation. But I did have some medicine that Mozart was currently taking and this seemed to be the only medicine ever prescribed for my birds so I decided to give some to Guff. I knew what exact weight Mozart was when he had been prescribed the medicine and the exact dose, and I knew Guff's exact weight. So I sat down next to Pumpkinhead with a piece of paper and a pencil. I wrote down a little algebraic equation so I could figure out the dose Guff would need.

"...he was just as talented as Mozart"

As I scribbled, Pumpkinhead leaned his head over and studied the paper with one eye zooming in on it. Distinctly he said with great pronouncement, "Math."
My pencil froze in my hand. I took a quick breath and looked out the window. In my head I thought, "I think the bird just said 'math' but maybe I didn't hear him right, after all it's very hard for parrots to say the 'th' sound so I must be hearing things."

I returned to my figures. But again, as distinctly, or perhaps even more so than before, Pumpkinhead said in his best voice, sounding for all the world like a scholar of linguistics, "Math."

There was no doubt this time. He had said 'math' to me as I sat there doing an algebra problem. Thoughts swirled into my head from his, a sort of telepathic transference. I looked out the window again and had a chilly feeling that things would never be the same. Everything in my world had just changed, again. Another bird had changed everything.

"Everything in my world had just changed, again"

to be continued