A Parrot's Rules

Hello Everyone, I saw this poster at my Veterinary Clinic on last visit.

1. If you like it. It's mine.
2. If I can reach it. It's mine.
3. If it's in my beak. It's mine.
4. If I can take it from you. It's mine.
5. If I had it a while ago. Than It's still mine.
6. If it's mine. It must never appear to be yours in any way.
7. If I'm chewing something. All the pieces are also now mine.
8. If it looks like it is mine. Oh! It's mine.
9. If I saw it first. You can bet It's mine.
10. If you have something and you put it down.
11. Whatever it was. It automatically becomes mine!

I think it about summarizes our feathery little friends, : = P

I had never realised the meaning of tenacity until I'd had my Beaks for a few weeks. The first time I saw it was when someone handed me a cup of coffee while they were out of their cage. Suddenly, I had not one but two green streaks dive-bombing my coffee cup! No matter what I did, they were both going to suck that coffee up by fair means or foul! I thought they'd gone mad! I mean, we're talking really hot, strong coffee here: they'd try to dip their beaks into it and even perch on the cup (Oww! Hot!). Meanwhile, I'm trying to dislodge them a) from the cup and b) from my person. All I could do was to whip the cup into the microwave and wait till they were distracted by something else. Then, I finally got to quaff the cold coffee.

Now, I've learned: we don't do coffee when the Beaks are out. What I *do* try to do while they're out is make their toys. Hah! See, I keep all the toy-making stuff (and there's a lot of it) in a large plastic tub. As soon as the tub comes out, I've got a bilateral green hat and they're jockeying to be first in! They know there are wooden beads, plastic beads, tongue depressors, whiffle balls, bells, chain, pear links and, best of all, paper cups to be had. So, as soon as the lid comes off, there they'll be, rummaging and burrowing into the great stuff and stealing away with whatever they can get their beaky little beaks on!

Barney is much more of a philanthropist than Madge: he readily gives up whatever he has to her acquisitive little self. She, on the other hand, lives by the notion that 'what yours is mine and what's mine's my own'. Anything Barney might have in his beak is considered fair game and she just takes it from him. Of course, many a life-or-death tug-o'-war goes on and it can be pretty funny. Best times are when they each have an end of string or rope and try to fly off with it. LOL!