Pickles The Parrot: A Humorous Look At Life With An African Grey by Abbott Georgi

Author:Abbott, Georgi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: funny, stories, pickles, humorous, parrot, african grey
Publisher: Georgi Abbott

Chapter 6

Pickles Gets a Dog

It was the end of September; we were finally home and settling in for the winter. Winters can be long and harsh in this high altitude town and I despise it. The snow can be beautiful and I love the silence it brings with it, and the sparkling clean look of trees laden with snow but once Christmas passes, I have absolutely no use for it. Winter brings blubber. Blubber’s supposed to be gained before winter, for warmth and sustenance but I stack on the pounds during winter. We don’t participate in winter sports; we just eat for lack of anything better to do. I get bored and when I get bored, I’m miserable. Poor Neil, I think it’s akin to throwing a bear in the cabin and locking the doors. How that sweet, good-natured guy puts up with me, I’ll never know.

I figure, let’s get a dog. He would be good company, we could walk him for exercise and keep in shape. Yeah! That’s the ticket! So, I contacted the Doberman Rescue centre again and within a couple of days, we bonded with a sweet little black and tan Dobie named Athena. She was good-natured and laid back, so laid back that mostly she slept. She had lived in 4 homes by the time she was 3, never abused but mostly neglected. We were assured that she was not aggressive and it seemed her only baggage was separation anxiety and fear of abandonment. Perfectly understandable.

We brought her home and took her to meet Pickles. Poor thing. She had no idea that she was about to become Pickles personal plaything, or the equivalent of the tormented little brother. We entered the living room and Pickles went ballistic! He booted it, half running, half flying, tripping over himself and falling off branches in his haste to get close to her. Between flutters and tumbles, he cried out “Hello baby! Well hello there! Wanna scratch? Wanna potato? Helllooooo!” Once to the bottom of his stand and close to Athena, he couldn’t keep his eyes of her. He talked and laughed, talked and laughed and kept it up for hours.

Except for all the commotion when entering the room, Athena barely looked at Pickles, she couldn’t care less. She stayed that way and has never been a threat to him. We weren’t stupid though—animals will be animals and we were careful never to set them up for disaster.

The day after we got her, we all went to the yard first thing in the morning for a spectacular, warm autumn’s day. Pickles was in his aviary and Athena settled in the grass to gnaw on a bone while we sipped our coffee. We sat next to the aviary, admiring nature and marvelling at our happy new family.

Pickles was still infatuated with Athena and did his very best to get her attention, stopping only long enough to heckle neighbours and passer-bys. Athena finally heads in Pickles’ direction so Pickles comes lower and closer to the aviary screen.

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