Just a silly picture

Saw this on Instagram earlier and figured you guys would be the only people I could share this with that would actually like it. Enjoy!

Very nice! The only happy "after" folks are the bird people!

It does feel like an addiction sometimes... my friend is worried about me

Looks about right.

The first time I came over to MrC's house, early on after we'd started dating, he proudly introduced me to Goofy and Cookie. As I really liked MrC, I put on my polite face and smiled all the while thinking "I really don't like birds at all". In my defense, I'd only known a couple birds and they were all behaved horribly. Over time, the little guys grew on me and I grew to like them even if Goofy was still plotting my untimely demise. Over the two years I've lived here, I've become hooked, even getting my own bird. I'm utterly and completely hooked.

I love it, Natolee! Thank you for sharing!

BeatriceC said:

Looks about right.

The first time I came over to MrC's house, early on after we'd started dating, he proudly introduced me to Goofy and Cookie. As I really liked MrC, I put on my polite face and smiled all the while thinking "I really don't like birds at all". In my defense, I'd only known a couple birds and they were all behaved horribly. Over time, the little guys grew on me and I grew to like them even if Goofy was still plotting my untimely demise. Over the two years I've lived here, I've become hooked, even getting my own bird. I'm utterly and completely hooked.

Click to expand...

Awww, your introduction to parrots really makes me smile! Is Goofy still out to get you?

Allee said:

I love it, Natolee! Thank you for sharing!

BeatriceC said:

Looks about right.

The first time I came over to MrC's house, early on after we'd started dating, he proudly introduced me to Goofy and Cookie. As I really liked MrC, I put on my polite face and smiled all the while thinking "I really don't like birds at all". In my defense, I'd only known a couple birds and they were all behaved horribly. Over time, the little guys grew on me and I grew to like them even if Goofy was still plotting my untimely demise. Over the two years I've lived here, I've become hooked, even getting my own bird. I'm utterly and completely hooked.

Click to expand...

Awww, your introduction to parrots really makes me smile! Is Goofy still out to get you?

Click to expand...

He tolerates me now, but I'm not certain he doesn't still daydream about my downfall. I've spent the last two years working with him. Honestly, I should have sought out parrot forums back then, because while I haven't done anything particularly wrong, there's a lot of stuff I could have been doing that I simply didn't know, so the process has been very slow. These days he'll take food from me (in or out of the cage), step up on a stick (also in or out of the cage, but won't go near my hand), lets me give him scritches occasionally as long as we're on opposite sides of the cage, and chatters with me constantly. If for any reason MrC becomes unable to care for him short or long term, I'm comfortable that I can take his place and we'd all get through it alive.

Goofy has a bit of a history. MrC's brother in law got him as a very young bird but when he hit puberty, he "turned" on BIL. BIL tried for years to re-establish the bond, but it never worked. Around 1998 he had to move, and he couldn't take the (at the time) loud and badly behaved parrot with him. MrC took him. At that time, MrC was recently widowed with twin teenage girls. He bonded with MrC and one of the girls. His behavior was never perfect, but much, much better, and he's fiercely bonded to MrC. The girls eventually grew up and moved out of the house. For a long time it was just MrC and the birds (there's a cockatiel as well). In Goofy's eyes, it was just the two of them, as he completely ignores Cookie. Then MrC moved in a girlfriend. That girlfriend wasn't very nice to the bird. She didn't like him and would sometimes do things intentionally to upset him. The relationship eventually ended and it was just MrC and the birds again. Then I met him and after a while we decided to make things permanent. I moved in with my crowd of rowdy teen boys. He actually likes having the boys around, even if he doesn't want to interact much with them. He's happy when they're running around, making noise. He lets one of the boys take him out of his cage and give him scritches, but that's the one that spends a lot of time trying to make friends with him.

We started with some of the suggestions for aggressive birds/one person birds a few weeks ago. It's making a difference.