Gracie came home to live with us on Monday night. Gracie is different - and very special in a different sort of way than my other parrots. Gracie was not an unmanageable bird with behavior problems who previous owners were afraid of. Gracie is my bud.
Gracie's owner came to the rescue about 9 months ago with a beautiful, 14 month old Green-Wing Macaw. He had several conures and Gracie and the conures just weren't really hitting it off. She just didn't fit in. He just wanted to find her a great home.
I was there when he brought her in. My first thought was, "I'm in love, dude", or something like that. He said, "This is Grace".
Grace is an imoprtant concept to me - I love grace: Grace and Courage; Grace and Peace; Grace and Laughter. I said, "come here Grace" and held out my arm and she stepped on. We walked to the back and got some nuts and chatted for a bit. After a while, it was apparent that the man was having a tough time leaving - he felt he had to give her up, but he didn't want to see her go. I thought, what is grace now in this situation? So I took her into the back out of sight - the man seemed relieved and he was able to say goodbye to the people up front and he left the center. I haven't seen him again.
I lost sleep that night - wondering what would happen to Grace. Was there any way that I could have her? Who would she go to? What would her life be like? I called the owner of the center first thing the next day - "Have you met Grace? Isn't she special?" I was told, "Yes, she is. She is at my home with the other 5 macaws now." I realized that losing sleep over it was pointless and I let it go.
Over the next few weeks, Gracie became more and more aloof toward me. I saw her a few times a week and no one stepped up wanting to adopt her and she seemed to be happy playing mostly by herself at the center. After several weks, I decided to see about creating a more positive relationship with her.
From then on, the first thing I would do when I came through the door was grab a hand full of nuts and go over to the macaws and start handing out treats. At first, Grace was not interested and stayed playing by herself. After a few days, she started wanting in on the action and started coming over with the rest of the gang for nuts when she saw me come in. Because I always spent a bit more time with her than all of the others, she started being the first one to rush over. I would come through the door and call out, "Hi Bob!" and she and the others would squawk back and come to the edge of the play tree and line up waiting for nuts. Eventually, she would readily hop onto my arm first thing and ride over to the nut bin to get treats out. Every time she showed interest in me, I would let her step up and them pay attention to her body language and take her where she wanted to go.
Others at the center started making fun of me - "Bob, you make it too easy on her! She has you trained too well!" They didn't know I had a plan - I was getting her to like me. It may have been Steve Martin (the animal trainer) who said, "Our main job is not to get the animal to obey us - it is to get them to like us." Many people I know are still expecting the animals to "obey" them.
Well, a month ago, it came time to find a new home for my Sun Conure - she was too nice and sweet. I could imagine her bringing real joy to some dear sweet grandmother and I needed to make room for a bird who needed me. [Last week, an animal training mentor of mine said, "Bob, did I hear right - you had to find a new home for one of your birds because it was TOO SWEET?" "Well, I didn't see what other choice I had.", I said. "You are my hero." they said - they know A LOT about R+!] Anyway, the owner of the center came to me, "Bob, if you are serious about finding a new home for Coco, I will give you Gracie."
I would be a lousy game show contestant - I said, "Um, OK, really? OK." I was in shock and didn't know how to respond - I wrote a letter later that night expressing my excitement and gratitude and incredulity.
You don't get a Green-Wing Macaw over night - these things have to be planned and arranged. It took about 3 more weeks to work out. Now Gracie is home with me.
Last night, she crawled down the edge of her cage onto my recliner, down into my lap, and asked for a bite of my ice cream. If you have never had a 39" bird with a 45" wing span and a beak the size of your fist crawl into your lap to share your ice cream, let me tell you it is very cool. Gracie has given up her aloofness - because she likes me.
And she makes a mess with her food and she poops in inconvenient places and, being just 2 years old, she sometimes gets demanding and wants what she wants NOW! But, she is a toddler and that is how they act - I have a lot of grace for Gracie because I love her and because a parrot acts like a parrot.
congratulations
on your new love ;o)