We have an 8 yr old African Grey at our house we started bonding with before the feathers even came in. She taunts the dogs and cats, has a sense of humor, and ‘burps’ nearly every time my husband or son enters or leaves the room. She picked her ‘favorite’ sneeze off of a TV commersial and uses it to mock us when we sneeze. (In case you don’t get that -she knows what a sneeze is and didn’t just ‘parrot’ a repeat of a sound we make, but chose her own and uses it when appropriate) She has such a high vocabulary and a COMPLETE understanding of word and sentance structure that she says things that no one else has said for her to ‘copy’. (For example -when she answers the phone -her phone- she will answer in one house voice, talk a moment, then call for someone else to continue the call, then continue in that voice -once answering in my husband’s voice, then calling out “Mom!... It’ Mom!” then after ‘giving me time to pick up’ had me talking to me. That has NEVER happened in our house)
She also WILL NOT poo on me (her favorite) but anyone else in the house is fair game, and she will aim at the cats...
Our Phoenix (named after a comic book character of the name Jean GREY a.k.a. Phoenix -the legendary mythical BIRD- red tail feathers, flowing red tresses... so sue me, I’m a comic book geek) is an untrained, beloved house pet with more personality than some people can believe, that should live about 80 yrs unless something happens. She is so smart she almost scares me.
When our 15yr old Golder Retriever died,(being the only other animal in the house she liked and was nice to) she figured it out after about a couple of weeks and went into mourning. She went into the back of her cage, went silent, and kept her back to us for nearly 2 weeks. She stopped eating, drinking and poo-ing (And you notice that with a decent sized bird) NEARLY completely. We were terrified she was going to die. We talked and talked to her as if she were a small child and she finally came out of it. When the new golden puppy came to the house it just wasn’t the same and she dislikes her as she does the cats that she pesters. With our second dog loss last year, (a Shelty of about her age) she did not mourn, but she continues to call out her name and ‘answer’ in a bark that is dead up perfect. It’s almost as if she’s keeping a little bit of our lost one in the house.
The world famous Alex was a highly and intensively trained professional. He was incredible! His handler/teacher/mother loved him very much and will feel his loss forever.
She has my prayers.
I and my family can personally vouch for that statement. Having known both Dr. Pepperberg and Alex.