Post by lenke on Mar 22, 2018 2:53:41 GMT -7
As some will know, my life hit quite a few road bumps over the last few years and this resulted in me "vanishing" for a loooong while from most of my on-line worlds.
Well, now that things have stabilised, and I have rediscovered my own future, i am now able to come back and make new friends, say HOWDI to old friends and get back into sharing my critter craziness again.
So....as to my personal flock.
Some of you know that my wonderful, special, nut-case grumpy old man african grey, Lucky Doodle, passed away a few years ago. (I still miss him DAILY and will probably do so still for a very long time).
Ive stuck with my personal principals of not supporting breeding and only doing rescue, so have had a few birdies come through my home zoo since the Doodle.
One of whom was a severely anxious and freaked out Timneh Grey called Piet (Afrikaans Pete). This poor bird was willed to me in the estate of a Psychiatric Patient who i'd helped through one of his episodes, and with whom i'd chatted about birds, specifically his own, Piet.
At the time, I was also busy with my honours studies in Dog, Cat and Avian Behavioural Sciences.
Anyhow...to cut a long story short, the poor human sadly took his own life, and his bird, bonded deeply with the human, took a great deal of strain.
So Piet arrived here, and i began trying to help him to settle in.
All the usual things I do (go visit my local vet, raid the garden for some natural wood perches and chew-fodder, boot the sunflower seeds and bring in the healthy foods, play various music genres, have the boy near my general living space etc etc etc).
But Piet just didn't seem to be responding, with one glaring exception....my bird vet, a dude, and my dad (one of the upheavals in my life is i am now being the "grown up" for my dementia dad and frail mom).
So, I cajoled and bribed and bullied my guy friends to come by and visit, so I could gauge Piets responses to guys vs girls, and pretty soon it became perfectly clear that my being a girl would not offer the poor guy his best chance.
Fast forward a little, and I contact Steve, a local parrot rehabilitation and font of parrot knowledge. After some sticky negotiations (Steve loves my sweeties, so I was forced to make him some fudge, some ice-cream and some rusks!), Piet moved into his new home and within an hour had calmed down from raging attacker, to laying his head down on Steves hand for a good ol' poll scritch.
So, i smiled, waved and walked away.
Since then, I've been blessed with several client CAG / TAG's to assist, but still haven't met / found / come into contact with another one for me personally.
However, I must just relate, with the clients permission, a seriously funny consultation I was called for.
Sooooo, this client calls me to come and do a consultation for her cat that just miaows "ALL the time" and who is driving her crazy.
I get there and we're sitting in her sitting rom as she's telling me all about her cat that is driving her nuts. As she's talking, we both hear some raucous caterwauling happening.
She abruptly stops and says; " There he goes again!" You HEAR him?!?!?"
So i nod, and look around, and notice a black and white cat sleeping peacefully in a patch of sunlight on the sideboard behind the client.
I say to her; "you said he's a black & white cat, right?"
She replies; "Yes, why?"
"Is he the cat behind you?" I ask
She turns round, and SWINGS back to me with eyes as big as saucers and her mouth open. The caterwauling is STILL going on.
The client nods at me and her eyes start darting all over...
I get up and peer through the kitchen door and very rudely guffaw out loud. She comes behind me and I hear her schnort too.
There her CAG is sitting, happily playing with a chilli-pepper as he sings to himself in ghastly Caterwauling in E-flat!
We worked out that he'd noticed she always has something to say whenever the cat made a noise, so her bird had decided he'd join in.
well, needless to say, we all had a good chuckle and I've given her some ideas to change his preferred irritation noise, and well, we will see how things pan out....
Thats all for me for now, but I will be back more regularly
Ciao folks
Well, now that things have stabilised, and I have rediscovered my own future, i am now able to come back and make new friends, say HOWDI to old friends and get back into sharing my critter craziness again.
So....as to my personal flock.
Some of you know that my wonderful, special, nut-case grumpy old man african grey, Lucky Doodle, passed away a few years ago. (I still miss him DAILY and will probably do so still for a very long time).
Ive stuck with my personal principals of not supporting breeding and only doing rescue, so have had a few birdies come through my home zoo since the Doodle.
One of whom was a severely anxious and freaked out Timneh Grey called Piet (Afrikaans Pete). This poor bird was willed to me in the estate of a Psychiatric Patient who i'd helped through one of his episodes, and with whom i'd chatted about birds, specifically his own, Piet.
At the time, I was also busy with my honours studies in Dog, Cat and Avian Behavioural Sciences.
Anyhow...to cut a long story short, the poor human sadly took his own life, and his bird, bonded deeply with the human, took a great deal of strain.
So Piet arrived here, and i began trying to help him to settle in.
All the usual things I do (go visit my local vet, raid the garden for some natural wood perches and chew-fodder, boot the sunflower seeds and bring in the healthy foods, play various music genres, have the boy near my general living space etc etc etc).
But Piet just didn't seem to be responding, with one glaring exception....my bird vet, a dude, and my dad (one of the upheavals in my life is i am now being the "grown up" for my dementia dad and frail mom).
So, I cajoled and bribed and bullied my guy friends to come by and visit, so I could gauge Piets responses to guys vs girls, and pretty soon it became perfectly clear that my being a girl would not offer the poor guy his best chance.
Fast forward a little, and I contact Steve, a local parrot rehabilitation and font of parrot knowledge. After some sticky negotiations (Steve loves my sweeties, so I was forced to make him some fudge, some ice-cream and some rusks!), Piet moved into his new home and within an hour had calmed down from raging attacker, to laying his head down on Steves hand for a good ol' poll scritch.
So, i smiled, waved and walked away.
Since then, I've been blessed with several client CAG / TAG's to assist, but still haven't met / found / come into contact with another one for me personally.
However, I must just relate, with the clients permission, a seriously funny consultation I was called for.
Sooooo, this client calls me to come and do a consultation for her cat that just miaows "ALL the time" and who is driving her crazy.
I get there and we're sitting in her sitting rom as she's telling me all about her cat that is driving her nuts. As she's talking, we both hear some raucous caterwauling happening.
She abruptly stops and says; " There he goes again!" You HEAR him?!?!?"
So i nod, and look around, and notice a black and white cat sleeping peacefully in a patch of sunlight on the sideboard behind the client.
I say to her; "you said he's a black & white cat, right?"
She replies; "Yes, why?"
"Is he the cat behind you?" I ask
She turns round, and SWINGS back to me with eyes as big as saucers and her mouth open. The caterwauling is STILL going on.
The client nods at me and her eyes start darting all over...
I get up and peer through the kitchen door and very rudely guffaw out loud. She comes behind me and I hear her schnort too.
There her CAG is sitting, happily playing with a chilli-pepper as he sings to himself in ghastly Caterwauling in E-flat!
We worked out that he'd noticed she always has something to say whenever the cat made a noise, so her bird had decided he'd join in.
well, needless to say, we all had a good chuckle and I've given her some ideas to change his preferred irritation noise, and well, we will see how things pan out....
Thats all for me for now, but I will be back more regularly
Ciao folks
