Every morning my African Grey parrot Gizmo calls to me from his cage, beckoning me to visit with him and fill his bowl. If I ignore his calls, he will become belligerent and continue to call as he must know it’s annoying.
“Mama,” he calls, his voice mimicking my daughter Emma.
I ignore him.
“Mom,” he says again, this time like Kristen, my eldest child.
After several tries imitating different members of the family, I’ll acquiesce and come to his cage and place dried fruit for a treat and he will calmly say, “Good night Gizmo,” in his best voice of my husband Dan, even though it’s 7 a.m.
It is my belief my animals know what’s going on and they decide when to behave and when to rebel against their owner’s wishes. They do their best to communicate their needs, even if it seems a bit childish.
Conversations with Gizmo are always mystifying. Anyone could be in the midst of a serious conversation in our home and he will add monosyllables at just the right time.
For instance, be in a conversation about someone being sick and end the paragraph with ‘I hope she’s better soon,’ and he’ll say in a female voice, ‘awww.’
If it’s just a typical question someone is asking in the kitchen he’ll be very agreeable and say, ‘okay’ to whatever is being asked. Hopefully no one is asking for money especially if you’ve walked out of the room and he answers in your place in your own voice.
And the best part yet is if a cell phone is ringing he’ll say hello and tell his imagined caller, ‘He’s not here. Okay, bye,’ although he won’t take a message.
Gizmo went through a very difficult transition recently and let us all know he was not pleased with mom going back to work. When I went back to work and he was home throughout the day alone, he began pulling feathers to show his displeasure. With diligence I sprang to action, working hard to find a way to ease his troubled heart.
I moved him to a window in the sewing room, just off the kitchen. I purchased a new cage and gave him new toys. We began having longer conversations, discussing the importance of freshly ironed clothing and how tasty dried bananas could be.
He’s stopped pulling his feathers and now calls to me in the mornings incessantly. He’s God’s creature with a very intelligent mind and it needs to be challenged. He has destroyed the new toys and believed me enough to try dried bananas but has yet to pick up the iron.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Conversations with Gizmo