The Water Of Life

Chopin was a 22 year old, self-mutilating, feather shredding, purportedly insane wild-caught Moluccan cockatoo I had just rescued. He did indeed seem crazy, yelling, "I hope I go away soon! I hope I die!" I explained to him, "Chopin if you die, you will only be reborn again." So, he revised his rant, "I hope I die forever!"

He needed attention and mental stimulation. And a shower! In the bathtub, I sprayed him with the hand-held shower head while he exclaimed, "Water! Water! How does it work?" Haltingly, I replied, "Um...I don't really know." In an outside cage I soaked him with the hose and let him dry in the hot sun. While happily preening himself, he proclaimed earnestly, "I like water!"

Together, we listened to classical music, and once afterwards Chopin whispered, "I don't want to go." But he still chewed on his chest so I called Tera for help.

Tuning in to him Tera said, "He says sometimes he feels crazy." Then she took a few moments to send him some Reiki. I watched him atop his cage as he looked up at the ceiling, turning his head this way and that.

Softly Chopin asked, "Where are you?" Then ruffling up his feathers and shaking himself like he'd just been caught in a rainfall, he said in wonderment, "Water! Water!"

When I heard Tera's voice on the line again I told her, "He said 'where are you?' and then 'water, water.' What did you tell him?"

She explained, "I sent him the energy and told him he could receive it over the next 24 hours and control it like a faucet turning on more or turning it off."

I smiled, "Tera, you told him it was like a faucet?"

She replied, "Yes and -- oh my! That's why he said 'water'!"

What stronger affirmation than that could one possibly ask for?

Later that summer so many years ago now, I came home from Tera's Level II Animal Communication workshop bursting with enthusiasm and asked Chopin "How would you like it if I hosted an animal communication workshop and have lots of people right here in this room with us practicing animal communication?"

He leaned way out over the edge of his cage, his head reaching forward as far as he could and with solemn reverence said, "Water!"

Happy Birthday to Pumpkinhead!

Happy Birthday (or rather Hatchday) to Pumpkinhead, Master Animal Shaman! Our gift to this great bird mind is the relaunch of AnimalTranslator.com which we have been working on for months, so Happy Birthday ol' buddy!

Pumpkinhead is the Jolly Green Giant! Our Master Animal Shaman is now 17 years old and really he's still just a kid. Don't let his young age fool you though, Pumpkinhead is wise beyond his years and he lives straddling the fence between both worlds at all times. Pumpkinhead is a philosopher and metaphysicist supreme. He has spent much of his life thinking very hard about some very deep subjects that most people I know are afraid to think about. Freedom is a big one on his list.

The first day I brought Pummie home from the pet store, he could say his name completely and with great clarity. He had big shoes to fill in Guffy's eyes. She had lost her mate, M, on New Year's Eve, 1989. M had been a striking Orange winged male amazon parrot from the jungle via New York City. I remember M flying to my shoulder one day as I played piano in my apartment.

He flew to my shoulder and sat and listened to my playing for a moment, one perfectly crystal clear moment which now seems like the very moment which would spark a soulfire for the rest of my life thus far. And he said out loud one word perfectly enunciated in his gravelly voice,

"Mozart."

Later I would feel like M was a prophet who had come to me briefly to point a wing in a direction and guide me along. But he died suddenly in an accident and one month later, on the day after Mozart's birthday (the composer), January 28, 1990. And to add irony to memory, I had to roll start my dad's car as I left the pet store, an old Volkswagen Rabbit. Pum watched me with great awe as I pushed the car downhill and then hopped in to let out the clutch. It must have reminded him of riding to the pet store in the pocket of the leather jacket of the store owner while riding a motorcycle. He's always loved cars and other types of automobiles since his chickhood, especially NASCARS.

We are honored to have this cosmic scholar in our midst. Someday I will get around to uploading that tape I have of Pummie saying, "Birds are so good/so bad" in his own defense after spending a little time out in an isolation cage for biting Guff. That's the first word he ever created himself. There are others and I'll go over them another time.

So for now, Happy Birthday Pumpkinhead!