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

Sparty and the Culuh

Spartacus Macaw is an amazingly intelligent bird. This 9 year old macaw's intelligence rivals that of my own. Within days of coming here almost five years ago, he learned our resident amazon parrot's entire vocabulary. You can have a conversation with Sparty with no problem. The thing about understanding a parrot's accent (yes accent) is that they talk in English really, really, REALLY fast.

Here's an example of a conversation I once had with the Blue Goose himself.

I started to walk out of the room.

Sparty: 'what are you gonna do now?'

Me: 'I'm going into the kitchen to make some food.'

Sparty: 'is it good?'

Me: 'yea I guess so'

Sparty: 'UH!!!!' (his word for food is borrowed from Pumpkinhead, it's the sound of a burp which is the syllable 'uh'. Sparty yells this when his pellet bowl is empty or when he smells something cooking he wants to try.

Or if he knows what the food is he wants, he just yells that word. Like 'taco' or 'pizza' or 'chocolate' (he only gets a little chocolate a couple times a year). But he yells 'chocolate' a lot. He really, really likes chocolate.

Once I gave him a sip of Kool Aid and he yelled "MMM! Sugah!"

Sparty is sad sometimes that he doesn't get to be a sun bird, a bird who is up during the day like all other birds. But he's used to our schedule now and was sleepy today and wanted to sleep.

When he sees the light of day, he says 'culuh' which is 'color' mispronounced. Remember what I said about parrot accents?

He got that from Pumpkinhead. Long ago, I was teaching Pumpkinhead the colors in a manner similar to how Alex the Grey was taught the colors by Dr. Pepperberg. That's another story but ever since those days, when Pumpkinhead wants to the light turned out at night, he says 'stop culuh'. Makes sense doesn't it?

Now what kind of brain put those ideas together? Black, or darkness, is the absence of color right? Yea takes a genius, more like takes a bird! Pumpkinhead is one pretty smart cookie.

And Sparty is like the Einstein of birds. But he says 'culuh' as in let's have some please and no more 'stop culuh.' But Sparty doesn't complain. He is such a good boy. He is the best bird on Earth and he knows it.

Dreams of Jessie Spells "Trouble"

Well I wanted to let that previous post just sit there a long time and look glorious. I just think my Jessie GSD is so beautiful. I love her so much. She is my wolf sister! We are as close as a person and their dog could be.

Oh sure I love my Rocky GSD, her brother too! He's my hunka bunkah! He's my Hollywood hero! And my Little Man, Felix the Schipperke! And Wacky Macky, my biological dog! But me and Jess have something special.

She came to me in my dream last night and showed me herself as a puppy which of course, I did not get to know her as. How I wish I had know both of these german shepherds as puppies, they wouldn't fight now, they'd be best friends. Well they don't fight now but they would if I didn't keep them separate all the time.

We're so used to that now. Anyway, in the dream we were all at my folks and I was telling them how we were going to rename Jessie "Trouble".

This is Jessie's way of telling me that trouble is coming. She is tired of my folks' dog, Jaime, being here and getting all the attention. Jessie is jealous and upset. Trouble is coming and her appearing as a puppy in the dream clearly means that she's feeling emotional and insecure more now than ever.

I will have to go buy some liver today and make her some special treats. I'm a lousy cook but the great thing about dogs is that they wouldn't know a good cook from a lousy one like me.

So I will spoil you today my Jessie. I'll do something extra special to let you know that you are my Stands With a Paw!