People..

.. I know I have posted about this once before, but I have a need to vent once more .

When I was working at the local Amazon Fufillment Center as a yard jockey,I was talking to a lady who worked there about our pets. Now I'm not a cat person. I don't hate cats at all..as a matter of fact, when I was young, the family always had cats, and Patches was one of the best cats EVER..even my brother has a cat. If I didn't have birds, and was going to get a pet..it wouldn't be a cat tho lol..

So anyway, this woman shows me a couple pictures..two cats and two terriers ( I call 'em TERRORS )
And I say "oh how cute" being sincere and all. So I show her a picture of Blue,who was Arleen's shared custody 120lb Dalmation/Wiemeranier and the lady says "oh what a handsome guy"..THEN I say.."and here are my 2 babies..and show her Amy and Jonesy.
The woman says OH ICK!! I HATE BIRDS!!THEY'RE DISGUSTING!! and abruptly turns and walks away Left me with my mouth wide open.

Today, while Amy and I are at the local donut shop..which we visit often, all the young girls know us, HI AMY!! HOW ARE YOU?? which gets Amy starting to talk and mumble Amazon speak and the girls get a kick out of it lol..and the "regulars" who know us also say HIYA AMY! People behind us in line saying..oh how cute! what a pretty bird! ..The girl behind the counter gives me my coffee and Amy her plain munchkin and we go sit down. I put a napkin on the table,take Amy off my shoulder and put her and the munchkin on the table and just sit back having a good time.

I see and older lady off to my side,from the corner of my eye,and she is GLARING at Amy and I...and she is muttering something to her partner. I know it was about Amy being there..I have heard it before.

Why is it "exceptable" for someone to come in holding a poodle or ****z-zu or one of those little Mexican doggies and people freak out over a bird?? Sorry...no comprendo

I think next time I'll walk in with a CONDOR on my shoulder and really give 'em something to talk about!

OK I'm done...thanks for letting me vent folks :09:


Jim

Really miss a great opportunity there!

As that individual was about to turn, you should have said: "Well that's a good thing! Because they likely feel the same about you. After all, they are very smart and would have sense that they are in the presents of a sub-species!"

Amazon's Have Way More Fun!

SailBoat said:

Really miss a great opportunity there!

As that individual was about to turn, you should have said: "Well that's a good thing! Because they likely feel the same about you. After all, they are very smart and would have sense that they are in the presents of a sub-species!"

Amazon's Have Way More Fun!

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I'm gonna write that one down Steven!


Jim

if you lived closer you could borrow Knothead, he'd love to share some donuts with you. You would be uncomfortable with him on your shoulder though.

Mimsy01 said:

if you lived closer you could borrow Knothead, he'd love to share some donuts with you. You would be uncomfortable with him on your shoulder though.

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"Knothead" LMAO!! Ya, he'd be difficult to balance on my shoulder! I HOPE 'ol Knothead isn't there for Thanksgiving! :52:


Jim

No, he's family. My neighbor asked that question though and I thought my husband was going to slug him. He's extremely attached to big man. When a baby he slept under his chin at night.

He loves attention though, and loves to share food. However his potty manners are horrible.

He certainly is a handsome guy. How old/how much does he weigh? Life span??


Jim

I took Venus to Loews one day to get new blinds because she carved a look out hole in them so she had to come shopping with me. She was on my shoulder with her harness on and this older, redneck lady (FYI my Dad's family are all rednecks and have no filter with their mouths so I'm well versed in redneck replies), looks at Venus and ever so loudly says she's never seen a bird on a leash and never seen a red bird. Education opportunity. She asked why is Venus on a leash, her husband looks at her and say "so it won't fly off". Then she starts asking me why would I want to keep a bird, shouldn't it be in a cage, the bird is going to poop on you, bird poop is nasty. I start to walk off and she asks "Can I pet it?" Me, "Sure if you want to lose a finger." And smile, she was reaching out and handed her hand back. Total satisfaction for me and no Venus wouldn't have bit her but don't insult my bird or I. The sad part she was just being herself.


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I walk around the store with an assortment of birds on me like a giant manly Snow White because it's the only part of the job I enjoy. You would be amazed at how many people walk into a exotic pet shop and hate half the animals that are in there. There are about 75 snakes in the store and while I don't love to handle them I still am not disgusted by them I think that they are awesome animals but I even understand hating snakes but how in the world can you hate a parrot they are adorable especially all the little conures that we in the store.

Actually I encourage you to come in to the petstore of your ever in nc and steal coco the YNA and she will talk crap about people at the donut store to you.

Eh, i've grown to expect to run in to someone stupid just about everywhere I go so I try not to let it phase me to much anymore. I try and focus on the fact that for every negative reaction I encounter, I get 50 positive reactions. I know when ever I go to lowes now *without* one of the birds, the staff all ask me where they are! And I get the chance to educate people who are genuinely interested, but know very little about parrots, or who have several misconceptions.

It's even resulted in a few situations where the person walked away saying "you know, I didn't think I liked birds, but that was pretty cool"

So we never know when we might just have an impact that changes someones entire viewpoint!

though, this does remind me of something absolutely hilarious I saw at my vets the other day. Someone was in there with their very plucked amazon. A lady was sitting down with her poodle, and saw them and said "oh my, what an ugly bird". And I swear, the bird looked her dead in the eyes and responded "what an ugly human"

We took Venus to dinner one night and sat on the restaurant patio. We were having burgers so I packed a baggie of treats for Venus because if we are eating she is eating. We had a few kids come with parents to look at Venus, people asking about her, never seen an Eclectus. She's very well behaved, quiet but when the food arrived she turned into a pig. The treats, nope she didn't want them she wanted the burger so I let her have some bun and lettuce. And a French fry. The kids loved watching her raid plates. Those types of encounters I enjoy and will let people interact with her. Now my Amazon Buddy, total opposite. He is loud and loves attention from people but don't touch him! Touching is off limits with him so people love talking to him and he loves it.


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It could be the misconception that birds are filthy and disease ridden. It wasn't too long ago we have avian flu running amok as well.

That and birds hurt paint jobs on cars; people get touchy about their cars.

Personally I find bird poop a LOT less offensive than dog or (lord help me) cat poop. Its some of the least offensive poop I've been around. My dog could make someone run for the hills; the family cat would poop on FURNITURE.
Not the litterbox- YOUR CHAIR.
THE TABLE.
THE FLOOR.
He did not care.
There is a reason he became an outdoor cat.
There's a reason I'm not a cat person.
I will never own another cat. Ever. I've been ruined.
He was trained, he was just a jerk. Still is a jerk. He lives with my mother in law and keeps her company since her dog passed. She really likes the little tyrant. If and when we get a house, or something happens to her, we'll migrate him into our yard but he won't be allowed inside except on raaaaaaaaaaaare occasion due to his extremely destructive nature. (Bird will be locked up behind a door he can't open. With an extra lock.)

A lot of people don't know a bird can be potty trained as well, or just had a bad experience with one. Someone I know is terrified of birds because one attacked her as a child. (from my understanding it may have been a mockingbird defending a nest. Doesn't sound like finch behavior)
I'm sure she'll come around my girl at least once, especially since her husband (my boss) is so curious about her and wants to meet her.

What a great bunch of stories!
I have a short one about condors...
My sainted Grandmother could never get straight what type of bird I had. She was always telling people I had a Patagonian CONDOR as a pet, that it sat on my shoulder, that I'd had it x number of years, that it would sing...
I never EVER could teach her the right name!
Almost everybody I met through her had the same first question: however did you get a Patagonian Condor?????

Ohhh I have a fun story one of the birds at the expo I went to some little kid asked if he could pet this Scarlett macaw named rainbow and the owner said for him to ask rainbow and rainbow looked at the little kid and said be carful rainbow will bite you. I almost died laughing at the face he little kid made he slowly backed away and Ran off the owner said that it was the best thing to teach a bird because people will listen to the bird better than the owner.

Poor Amy Getting insulted even though she was just hanging out and being a good girl. You'd think people would realize if the bird is well behaved enough to be out in public with the owner, it probably isn't some disease ridden scavenger who eats trash and spreads illness. In my experience, if the owner cares enough about the pet to bring it out and about with them, then the pet is very well cared for and well behaved, regardless of species.

I've gotten some dirty looks on Kiwi, but used to get the nastiest comments all the time when I'd bring Tiffany (my very large bearded dragon) out before she passed away. It was like get real folks, she's on a harness (not going anywhere), she's calmly sitting on my shoulder (again, not going anywhere), she's not poisonous (really, I assure you she has no poison!). If large reptiles (or parrots, or dogs, or any other pet you may encounter in public) freaks you out, stay away, you don't need to come over and say something about it! I'm not a dog person, I just make a wide berth around them. They have a right to be out with their owners too and why give a dirty look or make a nasty comment about a well behaved animal?

Teknogeddon said:

It could be the misconception that birds are filthy and disease ridden. It wasn't too long ago we have avian flu running amok as well.

That and birds hurt paint jobs on cars; people get touchy about their cars.

Personally I find bird poop a LOT less offensive than dog or (lord help me) cat poop. Its some of the least offensive poop I've been around. My dog could make someone run for the hills; the family cat would poop on FURNITURE.
Not the litterbox- YOUR CHAIR.
THE TABLE.
THE FLOOR.
He did not care.
There is a reason he became an outdoor cat.
There's a reason I'm not a cat person.
I will never own another cat. Ever. I've been ruined.
He was trained, he was just a jerk. Still is a jerk. He lives with my mother in law and keeps her company since her dog passed. She really likes the little tyrant. If and when we get a house, or something happens to her, we'll migrate him into our yard but he won't be allowed inside except on raaaaaaaaaaaare occasion due to his extremely destructive nature. (Bird will be locked up behind a door he can't open. With an extra lock.)

A lot of people don't know a bird can be potty trained as well, or just had a bad experience with one. Someone I know is terrified of birds because one attacked her as a child. (from my understanding it may have been a mockingbird defending a nest. Doesn't sound like finch behavior)
I'm sure she'll come around my girl at least once, especially since her husband (my boss) is so curious about her and wants to meet her.

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The Movie of old: The Birds! Doesn't help either.

In our area, its the Red Wing Black Birds that attack People that have come far to close to their nests. And, attacked as a child seems to set a life lasting fear into place.

I'm not a big Cat fancier. My dear wife loves to hold them. So, when we visit friends who have a Cat, guess who the Cat is all over and who it avoids, every time?

I'm amazed at how common fear of birds is. I took Buddy to a family cook out, had his travel cage so he could have a place to camp if necessary. There were about 20 people total there and Buddy decided to fly across the room. It was like the squirrel scene in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, people running and screaming. I was very bad, I bent over laughing, hard, tears. One brother in law used a child as a shield, lol. I collected Buddy who was just chatting it up.


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Oh, lord... if I took the Patagonian Condor to a family event, I'd never be invited again.

Hey, wait a minute...

Taw5106 said:

I'm amazed at how common fear of birds is. I took Buddy to a family cook out, had his travel cage so he could have a place to camp if necessary. There were about 20 people total there and Buddy decided to fly across the room. It was like the squirrel scene in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, people running and screaming. I was very bad, I bent over laughing, hard, tears. One brother in law used a child as a shield, lol. I collected Buddy who was just chatting it up.


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You're just Bad to the Bone! But, here I am LMAO!!!

Every Christmas, same story! So, Me Too!!!

And, every year we get asked back!!!