Looking for books about parrots?
Check out our
Amazon Bookstore
|
The PDD Memorial Quilt
In loving memory of all victims of Proventicular Dilatation Disease.
Nicky
I walked into the pet store broken-hearted because I missed my Teil that had died. He wasn't even sick, just died in the night. As I walked around looking at the birds I saw one that was much different than I had seen. I ask the owner (Dan) if I could hold him. He said, "He's an asshole and you'll get bit but if you want to hold him, you will have to grab him on his back and hang on to his head. You can thump him on the head if he bites too hard. Do you want me to show you how I hold him?" I said I would pass on the holding and I chose to pet the top of the birds' head. Oh yes, I got bit for sure but I just let him bite me as I talked to him. I told him how pretty he was and asked if he would let me love him. He let go and when my wound began to bleed, Dan reminded me that he told me so. I guess he was afraid I would sue him. That was the farthest thing from my mind. I asked how much he was and was told $150. I named him Nicky right away. Dan said he did bird grooming for free every Tue evening so I said I would be back then. I took Nicky back for the grooming and was shocked at how Dan was "man handling" all the birds. I can't write in words how he held them but they all acted like they couldn't breath well.
I soon learned why Nicky was such an angry little guy. He wouldn't let me touch him without biting me so I decided I needed to give him time to learn to trust me and let me show him that I loved him. Day after day I sat with him for a few minutes several times a day and talked to him, sang to him, read to him and played the guitar for him. He seemed to love it all. I ate all my meals near him and he would come closer and closer to me each week that passed. I would often hold some kind of food between my teeth and offer the other end of it to Nicky. He would always shy back but then began to move nearer to me. One day he shocked me by taking a bite of the food that I was holding. I was so happy I wanted to cry but I didn't move. By then, he had begun to learn some words so he said, "What ch doin'?" That did it, I just had to laugh and when I did, he laughed too. It wasn't too long after that when he was sitting on the arm of the chair and I had my hand beside him hoping he wouldn't take a bite. He slowly began inching onto my hand and up my arm. After several minutes he was sitting on my shoulder just as happy as could be. This to me was the most wonderful feeling. With time, he would let me walk all over the house with him on my shoulder and eventually, outside as well. He never got over his fear of hands but he would let me hand him food and once in a blue moon I could stroke his beak. When he would bite me, I would say, "Don't bite". One day he bit me and said, "Don't bite". It was sooooooo funny.
We lived near a train and I taught him to say, "What's that--woo woo, train". It was so cute when he would say the whole phrase but I really like it when he would say, What's that?- then wait for me to say woo woo and then he would say
"train."
Nicky got use to seeing the Dominos pizza man come to the door with a pizza. When would hear him drive up, I would day, "Pizza--pizza". He always wore a base ball cap and would bring the pizza in. He would say, "Hi Nicky" and Nicky would say hello back to him. One day, the landlord came to the door wearing a base ball cap and when he came in, Nicky said, "Pizza--Pizza"? Poor Nicky, there was no pizza for him that time but we sure got a great laugh out of him. It was impossible to sneak a snack around Nicky. As soon as he heard the refrigerator door or a paper wrapper or anything that sounded like food, he would yell "PIZZA PIZZA".
Nicky loved to take a nap with me and would sleep on my chest if I laid down on the couch during the day. It was so cute how he would actually rest with his chest next to mine as I slept and he would be very quiet. I only slept for 15 minutes at a time but it was a nice little nap with my guard bird there with me. I have a pink printed bathrobe that's made of very soft material. Nicky would crawl up under the lapels and go to sleep while I was wearing it. He loved to be covered up with anything soft.
When I would leave for work in the morning I would say, "Bye bye, you be a good boy". When I came home in the afternoon, I would say, "Hi Nicky, were you a good boy?". One day he really surprised me when I came home from work. I didn't say my usual greeting and next thing I knew, I heard Nicky say, "Hi Nicky, I be a good boy". Notice how he put the morning phrase that I said with the afternoon phrase to come up with an acceptable greeting and question?
|
