My, oh my, but were we honoured in September or what!?!

Talk about big names, well you don’t get much bigger than this lady.
Rosemary Low well known Parrot Lady (evidently she writes books about us)
came to speak to us about our cousins who have fell on hard times.
The film show and talk got off to a rather faltering start as the sound was particularly poor. I mean I’ve got better hearing than those owners, but even
I was having difficulty listening to what the cousins were saying and as for
the Parrot Lady’s voice, well that was very “Low”!

Anyway we are collecting prizes for the raffle to be held at Stafford bird
show on the 11th October to raise funds and to let humans know all about
our wonderful club. Well would you believe it? My owner had brought in a
pair of portable speakers (they were only small) and after pinching that
lovely Lynda’s camera batteries, things improved greatly.

Sadly the talk was about my cousins whose owners could no longer keep them, or had died. This is so sad
as we grieve as much as any of the owners when they lose someone they love. And then the cousins were
put in this strange place, without their beloved owner, sometimes they were even neglected. There are
some kind humans who really love us parrots, but I think they take on too much and instead of helping,
they do us more harm. Of course it is a case that we parrots live a long life and if the humans take us home
when they are knocking on a bit , the chances are we will outlive them and then where shall we go? There
are also, some rather unscrupulous humans who are more interested in our price than our welfare. A
strange thing that. I’ve never seen a human hand over “money” to have someone live with them,
although I do remember my owner talking about slavery in the same context, but would you believe it,
humans actually pay lots of “money” whatever that is, to have the privilege of having us in their home
and I hear tell “money” is almost as popular as we are!!

However, there was a happy ending to the Parrot Lady’s talk. She showed us a wonderful place where
my poor cousins go, that is like a five star hotel! Beautiful big spaces to fly and lots of real branches to
chew and perch on. Apart from the fact that there was a covering all over the place, so you couldn’t get
out, you might have thought that you were outside in the real world. Of course being out there is rather
scary to me, I much prefer to have my breakfast, lunch and tea brought to me by my own personal slave
every day. There was only one problem with this place – it is in a country called Canada. Now I know our
friends the geese come from there, but I don’t think it’s very near to us, because all those geese are
absolutely shattered when they land complaining of the long flight. Still, never mind perhaps some
humans over here might make us one like it!

Well when the film show and talk was over the humans did what they normally do and that was talk some
more and then it was time to go home. I can’t wait till next time as a little bird has told me cakes are
on the menu, freshly prepared in the kitchen where we meet. Yum!!! See you there.

Bingo
(Blue & Gold Macaw – owner Alison)