(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . My Wasabi. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-13 We've been together for fifteen years, and he still surprises me at times. When we are interacting it's sometimes hard to tell if he is a parrot imitating a human, or I am a human who thinks she's a bird. Maybe it's a little of both. Wasabi Rodan, an orange wing amazon parrot. When we met I and my family had returned to Arizona a few months before. It was 2008, the big recession had made itself felt a little earlier in some states including Oregon, and when things fell apart for us there I decided to go back to Cottonwood. We'd been away for seven years, and in that time things had changed drastically for my grandparents as well. They needed me, and we needed a place to live. It was the sensible thing to do. It was interesting to see how Cottonwood itself had changed, and while exploring we found a really nice pet shop near the Fry's supermarket. The place was big, clean and bright, and to my great joy, they had birds. Not a huge number of them but the ones they had were lovely. My grandma had bought her canary there a couple years before, and recommended them. It took me about five minutes to zero in on this guy. Possibly because he was also watching me. At the time his nickname was Crybaby. He was a hand fed, domestically born parrot and only about two years old. An adult, but young. His cage was large, clean, and had plenty of toys, but when he was bored and lonely (which apparently was often) he'd amuse himself by incessantly droning a high pitched, nasal whine. Hence the nickname. He was also housed right next to a gorgeous little Goffins cockatoo named Punkin. Punkin was vivacious, charming, very popular, and not for sale, being the owner's pet and something like a mascot for the store. Punkin got a lot of admiring attention and according to his owner, a few people had offered ridiculously big amounts of money in an attempt to buy him. He was that adorable. Crybaby did not seem to dislike Punkin, but he also did not show to advantage, placed right next to Punkin as he was. While beautiful, orange wing amazons are not especially flashy as parrots go. They're also not especially outgoing and gregarious with strangers. So Punkin had a fanbase; these days he probably has his own Instagram account. And Crybaby was mostly left alone. In an effort to drum up interest in him, his original asking price of $1250 had been reduced to $900. Something outside has caught his attention. I of course didn't have that kind of money just languishing in my wallet waiting to be spent. But I was working, and with a little care, I could save up enough. I asked the shop owner if he'd consider a sort lay-away arrangement; I'd make a down payment of $250, make regular payments after that, and Crybaby would remain there until I paid the balance off. I didn't expect my offer to be accepted, but it was. And for a few months I'd bring my payments in, have Crybaby let out of his cage, and we would visit. The employees began to call me Crybaby's mom; they seemed really happy that he'd finally found his human. On my first visit they'd hovered a little anxiously; I think they were concerned that he might bite me. He's never bitten anyone, but like any amazon parrot he responds best to considerate and respectful handling. Parrots tend to be very territorial about their homes and don't appreciate anyone just reaching into their cage to grab them. Amazons in particular will lunge and growl at anyone who tries to do that. But I was already familiar with parrots, I knew how to proceed, and our friendship grew a little more with each visit. A fanciful portrait of Wasabi that I painted some years ago. Then came the day when I was ready to pay him off fully and bring him home. I was so excited and happy. Drove to the pet store...and he wasn't there. Nobody was. The place was entirely empty. The lights were off, and a small notice on the door indicated that the shop was forced to close. The owner had had to file for bankruptcy. You can imagine how I felt. It took a day of calling around to catch up with the store owner. Who, to be fair, had his hands very full with finding relatives and friends to house and care for the various creatures prior to their being sold as a lot to a wholesaler. But he hadn't completely forgotten me, and arranged to meet me the following day at the home of a friend of his who had taken in several of the birds. Crybaby was by then in a considerably smaller cage, in the living room where the kids of the family would play video games and watch TV. Their preferred games were noisy outer space adventures with lots of pew-pew laser gun sound effects. Ten or eleven days of exposure to those noises meant that my parrot now had all sorts of interesting new noises of his own. Which he still makes to this day. Fortunately those were fairly nice kids, not prone to shouting obscenities, so he didn't pick up any cuss words. I've had sweary birds, and it's just about impossible to get them to stop cussing. I think they enjoy it as much as humans do. When Barkimedes Max joined the family he was especially fascinated with Wasabi. I think he was waiting for the parrot to toss a bit of fruit on the floor. These days Max just asks me for a small share of what I cut up for the birds. My little green friend had not forgotten me, and climbed out of the cage without hesitation. I held him on my hand for a moment before popping him into the pet carrier I'd brought. Amazingly, he didn't even seem to mind. And we went home together, where I promptly changed his name because no way was I going to call him Crybaby. If he'd shown any sign of recognizing and responding to that name I probably wouldn't have changed it; most of my pets have been rescues, and in my opinion it's unfair to the animal to suddenly change a name they've been responding to for years. What's this thing Mom? A long time ago I took a correspondence course (remember those?) from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. I still have the textbook, my test papers, and the official certificate of completion I got at the end. It's the closest thing I'll ever have to a college degree. Anyway, I learned all sorts of cool things about birds. Such as, most green birds (like this guy) look green because of a layer of yellow pigment cells overlaying a blue feather structure. And that a bird's eyes are able to see spectrums of color that are not visible to humans. So even a relatively uncolorful bird (I refuse to describe him as drab) like Wasabi can appear very different to another bird. A bird's eyes are just enormous. If a human's eyes were similarly sized in their head they'd be big as apples if not grapefruits. For some reason he never nibbles the houseplants. My budgies and cockatiels treat them like a salad bar, so I keep the plants further out of their reach and give them veggies instead. He can talk up a storm when the mood comes to him. He says Hi in my daughter's voice; most talking birds seem better able to imitate a woman's voice than a man's. He still makes video game sound effects, and blows raspberries very well. (I taught him that) It's amazing how they can duplicate human speech, considering that they don't have lips. All of the sounds a bird makes come from their throat. He's never bitten anyone, but does like to mouth my hand sometimes. His little tongue is warm and dry and feels something like a baby's finger. In fifteen years I have not been able to get him to sit on my shoulder. Every other parrot I've ever had, that's the first thing they want. My cat will sit on my shoulder, hell I have a chicken that will fly up and perch on me. But this guy isn't having any. The little weirdo. I don't mind. He still wolf whistles at me and calls, "C'mere! C'mon!" Which I will always enjoy when it's coming from a parrot. Do you suppose they dream about us? Thank you for reading. This is an open thread, all topics are welcome. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/13/2174922/-My-Wasabi Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/