Of Course I hear voices, I Own Parrots
Yesterday I left my apartment at 7:05. I went and worked my regular work day, and I filled in for one of my friends. I taught her 2 classes, and finally crawled out of the building at 8:20. I talked to my mom on the way home about her move to the new temporary parsonage while they continue to fix the actual parsonage after the fire. As I was driving home, I knew I had food in my fridge, but none of it sounded good. I had every intention of staying in and working on the novella because my weekend is going to be insane. Instead I decided to go to Majors for dinner. My friends have a karaoke show there on Wednesdays, and it would be nice to eat and unwind a bit before jumping back into work. I put the birds to bed before I left (like I always do. My Fids need at least 10 hours of sleep a night, or they quickly become cranky beaks). I went and ate dinner, but instead of singing a song or 2 and leaving, I ended up in the DJ booth and helping for most of the night. I finally crawled in the door around 1. I had to turn the living room light to find something, and almost immediately Popcorn started running his beak. I talked to him a little and then told him it was time to go back to sleep. I turned to shut off the lamp and that is when I heard a little voice say “No.” Yes, my cranky old man cockatiel told me no. To make matters worse...when I looked at him in shock he said it again. My birds do not talk all the time. They all sing and vocalize constantly, but they actually use words maybe 25%-50% of the time. Every once in a while I’ll just randomly here, Hello or Rokay, or Whaaaat? I think Batty is currently working on Seriously, and some mornings will say Good Morning back to me. Popcorn is my least talkative, but I still hear him saying Uh-Oh and I know and the occasional Pretty Bird, but this is the first time he has ever said no. I know they say cockatiels can have the intelligence of a toddler and really Batty and Popcorn are pretty sharp, but this was unexpected. Now I know he…and the other four birds (well no so much Mina...she’s spoiled but not spoiled to the extent the boys are…she’s just happy I come home from work, feed her and talk to her still) were probably irked because I was only home for about 15 minutes, and they did not get any out of cage time…or TV time (yes…Batty watches TV with me), and I didn’t spend my usually amount of time with them, but I was not expecting this. The only thing I could think to say was “I don’t care if you want to stay up…If I’m sleeping you are sleeping!” I heard some squaks in protest as I shut off the light, but that was the end of it. Yes, I am a mean parront.So yes, my birds talk back…just like a real kid!
