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To: grey_whiskers

That was beautiful. Birds are much smarter than we’re aware of. An elderly woman I knew had a budgie she named Charlie. She let the bird fly around her tiny house most of the day. I was initially appalled that the bird was probably leaving droppings on the tops of curtains, etc, but she didn’t seem to care. The woman stored the pills she took nightly on top of her toaster oven, and if 10:00 p.m. came and she hadn’t taken her pills, Charlie would stand on the toaster oven and squawk until the lady came into the kitchen to take her pills. Then the bird would go back to his cage and retire for the night. When Charlie died, the woman was bereft and took him to the vet for disposal where she learned Charlie was a female. I stopped saying “bird brain” after knowing Charlie because that bird was smarter than some humans I know.


2,180 posted on 10/25/2021 6:20:20 AM PDT by LittleLinda
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To: LittleLinda
An elderly woman I knew had a budgie she named Charlie. She let the bird fly around her tiny house most of the day. I was initially appalled that the bird was probably leaving droppings on the tops of curtains, etc, but she didn’t seem to care. The woman stored the pills she took nightly on top of her toaster oven, and if 10:00 p.m. came and she hadn’t taken her pills, Charlie would stand on the toaster oven and squawk until the lady came into the kitchen to take her pills. Then the bird would go back to his cage and retire for the night.

One of my mom's relatives had some sort of parakeet or such that had a limited vocabulary of English words along with the usual cheeps and chirps. It also had free rein in the house. It would perch on the rim of its main human's coffee cup in the morning and daintily dip its beak in the coffee and then leave-- sort of like giving it an avian seal of approval.

When you are a little kid, this seems like pretty neat stuff; from the cynical teen years to the midlife crisis, it is just hopelessly stupid and you roll your eyes over it.

But if you last long enough and the culture hasn't managed to poison you, it seems like pretty neat stuff again.

2,185 posted on 10/25/2021 6:46:32 AM PDT by niteowl77 (The "Health Care" industry: it's not about health OR caring.)
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