Pickles The Parrot Returns: My Continued Adventures with a Bird Brain (14 page)

Learning to “read” Pickles
took some time. Georgi taught me to pay attention to his posturing
and to not “push it” when he was edgy. I found it helpful to watch
the progression in his mood and actions and look for signs of his
comfort, trust, fear and excitement levels.

It’s been over a year now
since I’ve been bitten – except for the odd accidental nip.
Georgi’s relationship is as strong as ever with Pickles. While I
believe she is Pickles favourite there are activities and games he
only enjoys with me as well as words, phrases, and songs I’ve
taught him illustrating the enrichment that comes from not being a
one person bird. Having a second caregiver and companion Pickles
enjoys not only twice the contact but by being exposed to another
personality he is both challenged and rewarded.

If I had to say there was
one thing that made our relationship work it was coming to the
realization that Pickles behaviour would never change until mine
did. Having a plan kept things on track. Perhaps more than anything
is the wealth of knowledge available. From the start we had used
positive reinforcement with Pickles however without BAS and Good
Bird we would have never fully realized our potential as Pickles
companions.

I must
say that I am extremely fortunate to be married to such a caring,
thoughtful, intelligent man who is utterly devoted to Pickles,
Neeka and myself. Also, there is no fighting in our life; we enjoy
being together, spending all our time together, enjoy common
interests and a relaxed, pleasant lifestyle. I b
elieve it goes a long way in providing a
stress free, and harmonious, life for all the critters we’ve lived
with throughout the years. We are truly blessed.

I don’t
know if Pickles has a ‘preferred’ person but I think that if he had
to choose, it would be Neil. I’m very good with Pickles but Neil
has far more patience. If I’m frustrated with Pic
kles, Pickles picks up on it and gets
frustrated with me. Nothing ruffles Neil’s feathers so Pickles
tends to be a little calmer with him.

Neil’s
usually the first one up in the mornings and I will lay in bed,
listening to the two of them inte
racting. At some point, either Neil or Pickles
will decide it’s time for me to get up and one of them will start
hollering “Caaaawfeeeee” which is my cue to get my ass out of bed.
Or sometimes, they’ll try to sneak up on me by walking quietly down
the hall but Pickles knows they’re going to wake up Mama and he
can’t help letting out an excited little ‘chew’ which gives them
away. Other times, they make it to the closed door and Pickles gets
to knock. When I hear the ‘bang, bang’ I’ll tell them to come in
and the moment the door opens, Pickles cries out “Good Morning!”
It’s so adorable the way he says it and he’s so excited to see me –
it’s a wonderful way to start the day. Especially when Pickles is
offering “Do you want some coffee?” or “Do you want some
breakfast?”

Neeka
sleeps with me under the covers, perfectly content to sleep as long
as I do but once Neil and Pickles show up, he’s all excited and the
room is bursting with morning joy
.

“
I speak in 3 voices -
mom's, dad's and my own. Nobody knows who's talking to whom around
here from another room. Yet, everybody answers to everybody. One
day, I'm gonna call out "Hey, wanna fool around?" and see if
anybody heads toward the bedroom.”

“
If you are arguing with
your mommy & losing, get really loud & drown her out. 
If that doesn't work, call her names.  If that doesn't work,
turn tail & run - cuz you're probably gonna pay for
that.”

“
They say you shouldn't
fight a battle if you don't have anything to gain by winning. 
Just winning a battle of any kind, is gain enough for me. 
It's a battle of brains & I like to prove my little walnut
sized brain is better than any big human brain.  I think the
winner should be able to eat the loser's brain.  With
ketchup.”

“
This morning, nobody was
around so I called out "Anybody home?"  And mommy answered,
"Nobody home but us mice!"  I was surprised that mice could
talk but at least I had company.  I went looking for said mice
but got distracted by a pop can.”

“
I think a really cool
thing for me to learn to say would be
"I
buried the bodies in the back yard".
 
Then, one day, somebody would overhear me & think I was copying
something mom&dad said so they'd call the cops on
mom&dad and they'd dig up the yard.  Which would be great
cuz then they'd find all my toys that Neeka the dog has stolen and
buried out there and I could have them back.”

“
Mom says I ask too many
questions.  What's that supposed to mean?  What's too
many?  Five? 100?  1000?  Don't you think she
should've told me ahead of time so I don't use them all up? 
Oh crap - now I’m 6 questions closer to the limit.”

“
I was thinking of becoming
a mime but then I thought no, cuz I like to talk too much. 
Plus, I thought, what if I suddenly had a heart attack? 
People would just watch me & while I’m dying on the floor
they'd go - man, he's good.”

“
Mom was trying to talk to
me and I didn't feel like talking so I said "No speaka English" and
she said "Yes you do - that's ALL you speak!".  I said "No
comprendo", she said "Yes you do" so I said "Ich verstehe nicht"
then she asked what I wanted for lunch and I said "Potato
please".  "AHA!" she said.  Foiled again.”

”
I've been learning religion
from mommy.  It's very interesting.  For instance, I
didn't know that God's last name is Dammit.  I learn something
every day with her.”

“
My mom and I argue over
such stupid things but we always make up.  Later, I
go up to her and say - I'm glad we made up mom, I'm glad that
you realized what a stupid thing you said.  I don't know why
we end up arguing all over again.  She just can't let
go.”

I don’t know what’s going on with that bird.
I used to keep track of the words in his vocabulary and a couple of
years ago, I had him at over 100 words and he learned more after
that but I had stopped counting. Sometimes he would drop words and
won’t say them again for a few months or years and some he has
dropped completely for some reason. But, in the last few months, he
has stopped saying many, many more of his words. Although he still
picks up the odd words and phrases, he seems to be much more
interested in sounds and has been picking them up rapidly.

Ever since we built the trout pond in our
yard, we have been experiencing many new varieties of wild birds
coming to drink or bathe and Pickles seems determined to copy every
single one of them. Don’t get me wrong, it’s truly amazing and
delightful to listen to – even all the different crow sounds – and
it’s like having an aviary full of different species of birds,
right in our own home.

Since I’ve been on FaceBook, I tend to watch
all the videos that his ‘friends’ post of their own parrots and
usually they are accompanied by that particular bird’s own unique
chirps and sounds. More often than not, Pickles is imitating that
bird by the time I finish watching the video and I’m sure the
neighbors think we have several kinds of parrots living with us
these days.

He picks up the silliest sounds. Sometimes I
hear the ‘click clicks’ of Neeka running around and wonder what
he’s up to, only to remember he’s sleeping under the couch blanket
with me. He’ll do the sound of Neeka’s ball bouncing down the
hallway; fooling me into thinking Neil is playing fetch with the
dog. Sometimes Pickles is doing the dishes, stirring the coffee,
dropping ice into a glass, turning off a lamp, opening the sliding
door, sitting in the squeaky computer chair, shoveling the
sidewalk, closing a window, running water or making the sound of
the shower taps being turned on. We haven’t been on dial-up for
years but he still fools me into thinking Neil’s connecting to the
internet by doing the old sound of negotiating a connection to the
computer.

Pickles loves, loves, loves sounds of any
kind and he practices them all the livelong day. You know, it’s
wonderful to have a talking bird but we’ve discovered that it’s not
all that important to us for Pickles to be talking to us all the
time. He still does – usually when it really counts to get his
point across – but mostly, it’s other sounds coming from his beak.
Maybe he’s decided he doesn’t need a whole ton of words to
communicate with us. Maybe he’s getting Alzheimer’s and forgetting
his words (not really). It doesn’t really matter though - if it’s
not important to him, it’s not important to us either.

Pickles speaks in 3 different voices – mine,
Neil’s and his own. Things can get confusing and this is a typical
conversation around our house when Neil and I are in separate rooms
…

Pickles says something in my voice.

Neil -
What?

Me –
What.

Pickles –
What?

Neil –
What did you say?

Pickles –
Huh?

Neil –
What did you say?

Me –
Nothing.

Pickles –
Huh?

Me –
I didn’t say anything.

Neil –
I thought you said something.

Pickles –
What?

Neil –
I said, I thought you said something.

Me –
Not me.

Pickles –
What?

Me –
I SAID, NOT ME!!

Neil –
Never mind. Must have been Pickles.

Pickle
s – Huh?

Neil
– Damn bird.

We have never ‘trained’ Pickles to talk and
almost always converse with him using context as a way for him to
understand the meaning of words. We used to encourage him to talk
though, and repeat the words until he could say them but we don’t
do that anymore; we just have casual conversations and if he picks
up words from this, that’s fine, but if he doesn’t, that’s okay
too.

Regardless, it’s still amazing that he knows
the meaning of the words he does use. Sure, sometimes he babbles
like a young child learning to talk but he’s very good at using his
words to communicate with us. Sometimes he gets a little mixed up
but you usually get his point.

I find it interesting that he seems to
understand the difference between a statement and a question. And
that he might ask a question, not understand the answer but be
happy with the response. He will often ask, “What’s this?” or
“What’s that?” and if he’s shocked, surprised or scared of
something, it’s “What’s THAT?” with the emphasis on the word
‘that’. Upon receiving an answer to his question, he will usually
respond with “Huh?” seeming to want clarification or he will say
“Huh” as a statement, seeming to accept the answer and possibly
thinking something like “Well, isn’t that interesting.”

Sometimes, we’re not sure if he understands
what he’s saying or randomly manages to insert the proper words.
Sometimes he’ll blurt out words we’ve never heard before, and may
never hear again, but he says it perfectly clear so that’s there’s
no mistaking what he said and it’s said in perfect context.

Neil and I seldom argue, and we never fight,
but there was one time when we were arguing. Neil and I each do our
own laundry but I usually do all the towels and sheets. Neil wanted
to do his laundry but the dryer was still full of linen and we were
standing in the laundry room arguing about who was going to fold
the towels. Pickles sat on the freezer with his head going side to
side, watching as each of us spoke. Finally, he piped up with “It
doesn’t matter!” Neil laughed and told him “Stay out of this
Pickles.” Pickles sat there looking at him for a moment then said,
“Neil?” Neil said, “Yes?” and Pickles gave him the raspberry. I’m
pretty sure it was just a coincidence that Pickles said that it
didn’t matter but it was funny none-the-less.

One day, he was playing in his wooden house
that’s attached to the wall and next to his ropes and boings. He
was going in and out – to the box then to the balcony - and each
time he went inside, I could hear him saying “What’s this?” and
then he’d come back out laughing. He didn’t seem to be directing
his question at me and I thought he was just being silly but at
some point I got curious. His box is fastened quite high on the
wall so I walked over, stood on my tiptoes, peered inside and
discovered a raw pasta bow. We don’t usually buy them for our pasta
but I had picked up a box of them for a particular dish he was
preparing and I forgot that I had dropped one inside for Pickles to
discover. Being unfamiliar with this item, Pickles wasn’t afraid of
it but he was uncertain, curious and obviously amused by it since
he kept popping out of the box laughing.

I picked up the bow and pretended to eat it,
showing him that it was food. “Its pasta Pickles. Mmmm, good.” I
said. He scampered over to the edge, peered at me curiously and
said, “Well, isn’t that nice.” I had never heard him say that
phrase before and I’ve never heard it since, but there it was. I
tossed the bow back into his box but hit the side of the wall and
as it fell to the ground, Pickles said “oops’.

I was pretty impressed. He had seen something
new, asked what it was, remarked how nice it was after being told
and said ‘oops’ as a proper reaction to it falling to the ground.
But of course he blew it immediately after by saying, “You got poop
on your beak”. Cuz I didn’t.