2014 was a difficult year for me personally. More than once I’ve found myself wondering why I put myself out there for animal rescue work. Some cases just break your heart, particularly if they’re due to something as fundamentally wrong as a human intentionally inflicting pain. I saw things last year that make it hard for me to ...

Rainbow Lorikeets

We’ve all got one of those people in our lives. Who hasn’t got a lovely person who has a knack for calling you at the worst possible moment? Like when you’re elbow deep is dirty dishwater, like when you’re watching a movie and it reaches the important bit, like when you’re trying to convince your parrot that it wants a syringe full of medication (without being bitten) or when you’ve just sat down to a meal you’ve spent hours preparing.

I’m related to ...

You can’t have secrets when you have parrots. Even when you think they can’t hear you or aren’t listening, you have to be careful about what you say. I’ve learned this the hard way more than once.
I was a bridesmaid at a wedding about a year ago. The bride and groom had been living together for a while, so it was one of those situations where they didn’t need household themed ...

I have a friend who rescues parrots in her city, sort of as a hobby and just out of the goodness of her heart.  She takes in several parrots a year, rehabs them and eventually places them into carefully...

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Umbrella cockatoos

My birds don’t talk a lot, with the exception of Libby, my quaker, who won’t shut up. The problem is, she only has one thing to say, and says it over and over until I finally have to leave the room having run out of ways to respond to “How ya doin’?”.  Still, every once in a while, one of them will come with a doozie.

I used to come home from work everyday to a familiar: “Hi. How doin’?” from Linus, my umbrella cockatoo. Now it has ...

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Quaker Parrot

As fun as it is to have a bird that talks, it’s never been high on the list of priorities where mine are concerned.   I am greeted when I get home with an array of “Hi”s and “How Ya Doing”s just enough to make me know I’ve been missed and that’s good enough for me.

However, it seems important to Libby, my adventuresome quaker, that she speak to me in my language, so I encourage it.  She is my breakfast making companion lately.  She sits on my shoulder while I ...

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