"A
Bone to Pick"
Nancy's
latest parrot story involves her scarlet macaw, Will Scarlet,
who is expressing his "dog side" by making bones
into weapons. Nancy's three dogs - an English Bulldog,
Rhodesian Ridgeback cross, and a Sharpei cross - have
an impressive bone collection (mostly big marrow bones)
which has its own special box in the corner of the living
room. Lately, Will demonstrated that he wasn't content
to simply be given one of those bones when Nancy feeds
the rest - now he has learned how to throw the bones at
the dogs, especially from overhead where they become formidable
missiles.
Does
anyone else have stories of parrots who "weaponize"
things?
"Monsters
Under the Bed"
In
the canine tradition of my first macaw, Sarah, my scarlet
macaw has added a new dimension to his dog side.
Bedtime
in our house is a little like those good-nights on The
Waltons - "OK, babies, it's bedtime; everybody go
to their beds." With that, the three dogs head to
the bedroom and take their usual places - Bug Queen and
Savvy under the bed, and Bodhi the bulldog on the floor
next to my side of the bed. While they're settling in,
I carry both parrots to their sleeping box which is mounted
high on the wall. Then I'm free
to head for the bedroom myself. Free, that is, until Will
Scarlet started changing the routine.
First,
it was coming into the bedroom in the morning to hang
out on the footboard. Soon, he was joined by little Zacky,
the cherry-headed conure, who sidled right up next to
him. That was fine; no one tried to get on the bed itself.
What I thought were just cute looks on their faces were
really strategic observations.
Next,
Scarlet decided he wanted to sleep in the alcove between
our bedroom and the bathroom, so I bought him a toy-poodle
size dog bed with fleece lining. Apparently, he's more
of a towel bird because he stole a fluffy, bath towel
from the laundry basket and put it next to the dog bed.
Now I have an extra dog bed which is on its way to being
a cat bed for our outdoor cats.
The
alcove as sleeping space lasted a couple of weeks; then
Scarlet was into the bedroom, nestling into a corner by
the closet. That was a very brief interlude on his way
to the ultimate goal - sleeping under the bed. His first
course of action was to dispatch the two dogs who offered
no resistance to "the beak". Then I heard that
special macaw laugh - "Heh, heh, heh" followed
by his small, sweet voice - "Good night, Will."
We
were the Waltons again.
