Back in early 90's I had mentioned several times to my wife that I really loved birds and preferred that over a dog or cat. Before we could go look she comes home one day with a Jenday Conure in early 94, I believe, from a person where she worked. It was an adorable creature, already almost a year old. We named what we thought was a male....Frenchy.
Frenchy though definitely bonded to my wife, leaving me a bit disappointed over time. Then, as a surprise, one day my wife comes home with an African Grey, also from a person where she worked. This time what we thought was a female we named Elise. I had my suspicions that she was a he because of the vocalizations.....I could whistle a tune daily for a week and Elise could repeat it.
Elise also loved to play, I would take a sock and hang it in front of her and she(?) would grab it and I would spin her around. If we were barefoot she would chase our toes trying to get them.... always made my wife scream like she was being chased by a mouse.
The previous owner had clipped her wings which sounds like reasonable thing in retrospect, but after awhile we decided not to continue. There were issues as the new flight feathers started coming in though so it took a long time. In the beginning she would drop like a rock if she tried to fly, eventually her glide path begin to increase.
I mistakenly took her outside one morning believing that if she did try to fly it would only be a few feet. She got startled at just the wrong moment when a strong breeze came by and took off. She immediately lofted to about 20 feet and was making a big circle around the house and was trying to get back to me. She had almost completed the 360 when a large crow started chasing her, she was close enough that I could see her look down at me with fear, as though she would yell out what do I do now? I watched in terror as she then flew a straight line farther and farther away even after the crow stopped chasing her. I began to run after her like a maniac, but there were too many fences in the way in our neighborhood. I spent the remainder of the day searching and asking everyone but to no avail.
Quoting: scimitar Continuing...
I even put up reward posters all over the neighborhood, I was devastated. So much so that I put a reward of $1200....after it was too late I realized that was a big mistake. Where we lived was in the process of a nose dive with drugs and bad elements. I came to the conclusion that if the wrong people found her they would never believe I would pay a reward like that, but that the bird must be valuable and would likely sell her outright. I beat myself up mentally for years over my carelessness. All I could really do was pray someone took possession of her that loved birds.
So then we just had Frenchy. I must admit it took me a long time to get used to Frenchy being such an annoying squawker, such a piercing noise, my wife eventually lost some of her hearing range because he invariably do it right in her ears when sitting on her shoulder. Soon after that we also discovered as well that Frenchy was a she when the eggs started coming. In her whole life she must have laid at least 3 dozen.
about a year after losing Elise we moved to another house, much nicer in a gated community. That was late 97, at the time unknown to me, Felicia would be born in December. Yes, my wife did it again, in January of 98 she surprised me with another bird. From this point I could expand the story and write a book, but I will fast forward.
After 9/11, my eyes opened wide and I began really paying attention to the world around me and the future began to materialize in my thoughts... Where we are now has been in detailed planning for many decades. I knew I didn't want to go through what was to come in a high density population area, so at the right time we started looking for property. Oh and I found GLP in early 2004, took me awhile to learn about all the role playing going on...Hahaha!!
Anyway Frenchy and Felicia co-existed in their own cage right next to each other for the 14 years in that house, not perfectly.... but they tolerated each other.
Ooopps.....more local requests....later.
