THE NEED TO SPELL

The other night Bob and I were talking about Beignet. She has been out of her collar for nearly two weeks without picking until she bleeds. That is a new record for her. It seems that she now understands that when she makes herself bleed she has to be in the COLLAR.

So...we were talking about her progress and what might happen if the collar needed to go back on and I realized that Beignet was listening to us. She knows the word collar very well so when I said it I had to whisper it to Bob. After I did we both started laughing. This is what you do with a six year old child. By seven they can spell.

We were also talking about the ways that Beignet understands languages. She knows body language, sign language, English, Parrot, and a few mechanical sounds. The actually knows two kinds of body language - hers and ours. That is a lot for an animal to understand and I am always stunned by her intelligence. Recently she has been learning the days of the week. Amazing!

BEYOND UNDERSTANDING

I have an itchy red rash on my head that is hard not to scratch. Beignet has a similar problem with her tail and has had for sometime. She will pick at it until it bleeds. One night I tried to explain to her that she should not pick at her tail. I told her I had an itchy spot on my head that I couldn't pick at either. I showed her what I meant. Six weeks later I was sitting watching a movie and scratching my head :(. All of a sudden Beignet said, "No scratch head!" She was telling me that I shouldn't do that. Bob and I were both amazed at the understanding of action/consequence and the ability to convey what she thought to me. There is always a new surprise around the corner with her.

Oh, my rash is from a medication that I HAVE to take. Her problem stems from a fall nearly two years ago after which she had four surgeries. I think the area is numb.

PLEASE

For more than a year we have tried to teach Beignet the word please. She has now said it one time. I was eating breakfast and in a hurry, so hadn't given her lots of bites. In a quiet little pleading voice she said, "please, more cracker:(" We had been saying, "More cracker, Please.", but even in this she used her own personality and put it in her own wording. How could I resist. She got more cereal.

The other day she said, "Step up, more kiss?" Of course I had to yield to that one too. She is such a sweet parrot and loving to the nth degree. She kisses us both good night and will even offer Google the cat a kiss, though he is wary of accepting it. Both cats are afraid of her, as they should be.

We are applying for a service dog for me to help in my balance. It could be from two to five years before it arrives, but we think it will help to prevent falls for me. They come trained to exercise on a treadmill. It will probably be Golden Retriever or Goldendoodle.

MORE CONVERSATION

Recently Beignet has figured out how to request things that she wants. She will say, "Step up, cracker?" and that means that she is hungry. She is still in a collar and going to the feeding perch is difficult for her, so we always help her down. By learning how to let us know she is hungry, she is now eating more and hopefully gaining weight. She will ask, "Step up?" and that means she just wants some attention. I am careful to honor that, even if it is brief. If she changes the tone of her voice and volume, the same remark means she wants to play games.

Beignet also announces what she is doing such as eating, getting a drink or such.

A nightly practice of mine is singing a special song I made up for Beignet. We talk about what happened during the day and what will happen the next day. It is a way I have found to help Beignet feel assured about the happenings in our lives.

Recently I had to go by ambulance to the emergency room. By letting Beignet know what was happening before the medics came, she was able to be calm and assured about me leaving. I told the medics that she had a high IQ and that what was going on was frightening to her. After I came home we talked about it to her. I always ask if she understands and she indicated that she did. Using hand signals for words like understand has been very effective.

Beignet has also learned her body parts. She is very reluctant to have her wings, tail, belly, or feet touched, but she knows what they are. When trying to teach her the names of the parts I realized that nose would sound like "no's" to her, so we call it her nostril. I hold my finger up and ask her to show me the particular part I ask for. She is very correct in her answers. She now holds her foot up when I ask her where her toes are.

Her math skills are still impressive. She has learned the days of the week and I can ask her a question such as, "If I give you two seeds on Monday and Wednesday and Friday, how many seeds will you get?" and she always answers correctly. That means she understands the number, the word seeds, and the days of the week and how many are named. She is always surprising me with her intelligence. Her skills aren't strong in speaking, but her skills in understanding are phenomenal.

TOILET TRAINING

This photo was taken at the Vet and isn't what her current collar looks like.

Okay, I know this topic isn't a favorite for people, but for the owner of a bird that likes to be around us throughout the house, it is a critical topic. Diapers are out of the question. When I first had Beignet come to live with us we began toilet training. When she would go we would tell her good girl, DROP! Now that she has been with us 5 1/2 years, the message has sunk in. I will ask if she needs to drop before she leaves her cage and most of the time she either will, or will try very hard. Either way she gets a verbal reward. I've taught her that there appropriate places to Drop and they include anything porcelain (not the kitchen sink) or on her perches or in her house. Currently I would rate her 95% toilet trained. It is so nice when your pet knows proper toilet manners.

Beignet doesn't like us to watch, so I back up and give her a moment and then I hear the tell tale sign, a dropping sound in her house. She is such a well behaved girl.

Today was bath day and I had to take her collar off. We have built a removable collar that doesn't constantly have to be rebuilt. She is an angel when I'm taking it off, and very well behaved when it has to go back on. I have the process down now so that I can do it by myself. Beignet LOVES her bath so we gave her time to preen her feathers before and after her bath. She was so happy, and didn't complain too bad when it was time to wear the collar again. She has finally accepted that this is a way of life and has become a happy bird again.

Our only problem with the collar is that it is a bit heavy and it uses her energy to wear it. She is woefully thin and we are eager to get it off her and get her fattened up. Despite her grueling year in a collar and with four surgeries, she is a light in our life.

COLLAR STILL ON

My dear Beignet has been wearing a collar (collar of shame) since mid December (I think). At first she just chewed on it randomly. However, because she has such a high IQ it wasn't long before she figured where the collar came together and she worked furiously on that spot. It took her four days, but she got it off. She can now get the collar off in four days and sometimes less. That means a vet appointment almost every time. Bob and I are learning the skills to put it back on. She will be wearing the collar at least until the end of March, maybe longer. All of her tail feathers have to grow back in and be very healthy before we can take it off. Then it will be a careful watching time with me setting the timer to look at her and make sure she is doing no damage.

Beignet has been such a good patient the entire time, and seems to have held no animosity toward me for the things I have needed to do for her. To say it lightly, it has been a horrible experience for us both. She maintains her cheerful self and despite the fact that the collar prevents her from talking, she whistles to me regularly.

When Beignet is having something uncomfortable done to her at the vet she just relaxes her eyes and seems to leave her body so that she can get through the experience. It has been a revealing experience to see how well she does with these things.

She has had two surgeries and I have watched both. During the first one she quit breathing and there was a quick ER type episode of getting her breathing again. I was amazed at their efficiency. They said most birds don't make it when that happens but they thought that since she knew I was in the room she "tried" harder to live. I don't know, except that she started breathing and I quit holding my breath.

We went to Hawaii during this time and she stayed with the vet who has four birds, so Beignet had lots of company. It was the safest way to work things so that she could get immediate care if she needed it. I love our vet. She is absolutely the greatest and is always happy. She works really hard to make sure that the animals and birds she treats are always healthy. It is an avian and exotic animal clinic, so I get to see a lot of different types of animals when I go there. Fun!

IMPROVING

Beignet is improving all of the time. The biopsy came back as severe staph infection. We have been treating her with antibiotics twice a day and pain medications twice a day. Yesterday we were able to stop the pain medications as she seemed to not have much pain. SHE HATES THE MEDICINE. Did I mention she HATES the medicine. I am at risk of digital loss when giving them to her, even with her wrapped up in a towel. She has nipped me a number of times and I have quite a few marks to show. I would be mad too. All of this came from a fall on December 10. We were unaware she had injured her tail and it wasn't until I came into the house from the garage and saw literally six feet of blood all around her cage and lots of it in her cage that I knew something was wrong (ya think...?) It scared me to death

Today for the first time since December 10 she sang. She hasn't been able to talk because of the collar around her neck and also because she has been so sick. For a while it was touch and go. The go part was twice a week visits to the vet (don't ask how much I've paid the vet). I was so afraid she would die and the relationship one has with a parrot is nothing at all like any other animal. There is conversation between you and your parrot both in words and in body language and it is intense. It is much more like having a child, even though I know she is not human does not mean that I don't know how intelligent and emotional she is.

So, we get the stitches from the surgery taken out at the end of the week (Beignet is counting down the days). She will still have to wear a collar for quite a while until the scab has completely come off. When we are in Hawaii the vet is going to be Mom for her and I think perhaps the ends of the scabs will be coming off by then and she will be able to keep good track of it.

Never in my dreams did I think I would have a relationship with an animal being like I have with Beignet. She is truly my companion. She knows how I feel and talks to me all of the time. She plays verbal games and catch the ball. She counts and shows me the colors of things. Parrots see the entire ultraviolet spectrum. I think the fact that she has an incredible sense of humor makes her even more "human". When playing ball she tries to make me miss it and is pretty crafty in being subtle about it. She sees the funny parts of life and comments about it. Parroting is not at all part of what she does. She talks - communicates back and forth with understanding. She understands hand signals when words don't quite do it for her. Most of all this last six weeks she understands sympathy and sadness. My heart aches with this because I couldn't protect her from it.

The good thing is that she feels better and is probably going to live now. She is feeling happy again with singing and I'm so happy for her.