Animal Farm
Ξ August 9th, 2007 | → 5 Comments | ∇ Costa Rica, Family, Humor, Life in Costa Rica, Maria Luisa, Pets |
My wife loves animals. Actually, it would be more accurate to say she adores any living thing. She probably should have been a vet. She dotes on all the living things in this house, including me, but I can tell you the amount of noise created in this place can be deafening. Let’s start with THE BIRD.
The bird’s name is Qui Qui. It is a yellow naped amazon parrot and it (we are not sure of the sex) is bilingual and quite likely, bi-polar. ML spends hours with the thing, singing to it, changing the cage, teaching to say new things, giving it treats. The bird hates her. I on the other hand pretty much ignore the bird. If convenient, I’ll share a nut or something.
The bird loves me. In fact, I am the only person who can even get near the thing. If I am anywhere out on the terrace, the bird will slide down the edge of its cage and walk over (can fly but prefers to walk) to wherever I am sitting and crawls up my leg and sit on my arm, shoulder… whatever.
The bird has a daily diet of the usual seeds and stuff. It also gets chicken and who knows what else. My wifey, you see, believes that parrots pretty much like anything she does, so the bird also gets toast and coffee each morning.
I have tried to communicate to her that parrots (as far as I know) do not normally consume coffee and toast in the wild and I sorta doubt that chicken, cooked or not, is on the recommended food list for parrots. I could be wrong about this of course. Anyway, it would appear the bird is now addicted to caffeine as it is positively grumpy until Maria has brought it its coffee and toast each morning.
The bird is also a thief and given the chance, will pickpocket you in a thrice. Actually, this is not accurate. It pickpockets ME and I have lost keys, cash, and other items to this creature. However, it appears very healthy and happy and looks MUCH better than nearly all of the loras (parrots) I have seen here.
Pirolina is my dog. I guess I should say she WAS my dog until “that woman” moved in (this references my wife), after which she promptly became HER dog.  This sort of irritates me as dogs are supposed to be loyal. Ha. She was foisted off on me by my friend Beverly whose son found her 80% dead under a bridge.
Here is a home movie taken about 4 years ago (before SHE moved in and stole my dog). Like most home movies, it is boring to anyone except family. Here Piro, then just a puppy, is playing with Georgie, one of our two Abyssinian cats. Watch only if you have absolutely nothing better to do.
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1815249741704311253[/googlevideo]
In the morning when we get up and when ML gets home from work, you cannot hear yourself think as all the animals start making noises at the same time.  I guess that is good huh? My family circus. Gotta love it.
on August 10th, 2007 at 7:48 am
I’b bet a lot of money that that parrot of your is female, just based on your interaction…..
on October 6th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
what an awesome video.:) Can cats live outside without being eaten? that is , 4 cats Here in Oregon, I have lost cats in two years to owls and raccoons.
Thanks, Tammy
on October 7th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Getting eaten is not an issue too much. Getting poisoned is. Some Ticos do not like cats for various reasons and do what the can to exterminate them
on December 8th, 2007 at 10:54 am
My wife has decided to move to Costa Rica. Being smart enough know she must be smarter, I have agreed. Easy for me to do as I have lived most of my adult life overseas – Italy, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia – and LOVED it!
My wife (a Singaporean) loves animals. We began by taking in a small abandoned kitten, Little Girl. She now weighs 20 pounds, and follows me around like a dog .next took in 5 cats born on the roof of our house – we now have 13 cats! Yes, we are ALL coming to Costa Rica – all 15 of us.
on August 21st, 2008 at 10:25 am
I used to work in an avian vet clinic and thought I’d reply to the parrot diet question. No wonder your bird seems healthy! What you’re feeding it is exactly what it should eat. There’s a common misconception that parrots should eat all nuts and seeds, but they do best on a varied diet of people food: basically, whatever you’re eating (including chicken), give to the bird. No chocolate. I wouldn’t recommend coffee, but a little shouldn’t hurt.