A consideration regarding owning a parrot.

Hooey is an Amazon parrot and he loves to vocalize. He has many different squawks. In the summer time when the windows are open I can hear him for quite a distance outside. Hooey is actually the reason we ended up buying our house. We had lived in an apartment. The landlord agreed to us having the pets we had at the time we moved in.


We had two cats named Fizzy and Clyde, as well as Hibbs and Hooey. We lived on the second floor and our neighbor on the first floor bred and raised Shih Tsu dogs. Talk about a small world, our downstairs neighbor was the first owner of Hooey. She had given him to a friend who in turn ended up giving him to us. When she gave Hooey to her friend it was with the stipulation that he keep Hooey. She was surprised and upset when she found out we had him but she got over it quick because she knew Hooey was in a good home. We had a good relationship with her being fellow animal lover. Then she moved out.


A new neighbor moved in and not to long afterwards we had a lot of problems with her. At first she did not know that Hooey was a parrot. She could hear something but she thought it was a puppy. It turns out this woman had no tolerance for Hibb's barking or Hooey's squawking. As soon as she found out we had a parrot she was calling our landlord constantly about him. She was a lawyer and worked at home. She would tell me that while I was at work Hibbs barked all day and she could hear Hooey all the time too. I talked to her and she even agreed that her intolerance was unreasonable so I tried as hard as I could to keep the noise down to a minimum but my efforts did nothing to satisfy the woman.


Although our landlord was aware of his agreement with us as to our pets the constant phone calls from our new neighbor wore on him. He wanted us to get rid of Hooey! We had Hooey for about three years at the point and I was not willing to give him up. We ended up having to move so we were fortunate enough to get a house and now we have no problems with our neighbors.


The point of this story is that Parrots can be loud. Before you get a parrot for a pet keep this in mind, your neighbors may not be tolerant of the noise and it is difficult and unfair to stifle the bird. If you have your own home and feel you can adjust to the loud sounds that come out of a parrot, and boy do I mean loud, it is amazing the volume they can produce, then you may really enjoy a parrot for a pet.


Donna

Who says Pets don't talk!

Pets don’t talk like people talk but they can make their thoughts known to us when they choose to. Hibbs, Heeks and I went for an evening walk recently. Often times Hibbs does not want to come on the evening walk. He is always up for the morning walk but Hibbs is not always up for the evening jaunt. He lets me know he does not want to come by not coming over when I get his lease out or he does not come to the door if he has been hooked up on his lease and decided he does not want to come.


Hibbs is now eleven years old so I don’t push him if he doesn’t want to come. If he does come with us and we are half way or more around the pond I make him finish the walk. He will just stop and look at me. I have to pull on him to make him continue. We just take it slow. I allow him to stop many times and rest if he has to finish the walk.


Last week Hibbs decided to come on the evening walk and half way around changed his mind. I again made him finish the walk. When we got home we were sitting out front cooling down from our walk and some of our neighbors with other dogs stopped to chat and socialize for a few minutes. Hibbs and Heeks have many dog friends in our neighborhood and we always greet each other on our daily walks. This evening one of my friends Carol spoke directly to Hibbs. She asked him how his walk was that evening. He answered her by growling a grumbling growl. I thought it was funny because I knew he had not enjoyed that walk. My friends also laughed because he immediately answered Carol’s question.


There have been other times when the dogs, cat and bird have seemed to respond to something I said to them. I think that pets can talk even if they cannot speak people do they can get their point across! Do your pets talk to you?


Donna

Animal Planet Expo is for people and for pets.

I went to the Animal Planet Expo the other day. They had lots of interesting things for people who love pets. I brought Heeks with me and she was a bit nervous. There were so many people there. There were lots of other dogs too.

It was held at the Topsfield fair grounds in Topsfield, Ma. They had many tents set up and each tent had some kind of animal related theme. Apparently this expo is traveling across the country so watch for it in your area.

If you are looking for a fun activity for the whole family including your dog this is an enjoyable event to take in if it comes to your area.
Just passing on the information.

Donna