Dedawen

LOL! Yeah Pooka's newest (within the past couple months) thing is to belch.

No I've had Pooka since he was a youngling. I can only guess that he got it from TV, he picks things up quickly. My roommate likes to watch cartoons (who doesn't?) but I strictly forbade him to watch "Ed Edd n Eddy" anywhere within Pooka's hearing because the opening theme is an extremely annoying whistle.

(this is a bit "grown up" humor so if it offends anyone I apologize up front) I bet every one of you has a similar story (please share!): A while ago I was dating a guy from Venezuela who, while not really "ignoring" Pooka rather took him for granted. He was the only friend who would come to my home and not greet Pooka as an individual in the room. Anyway one night we were sitting together on the sofa & Pooka was on his gym not far away minding his own business when suddenly he decided to "vocalize", to put it mildly. He started to do a series of deep moans followed by a long satisfied sounding "sigh". I have no idea where this came from, and in this I am 100% serious, but it sounded VERY improper. I could not take my eyes off the TV. Refused to. I felt my friend slowly swivel his head towards me and felt his eyes boring into the side of my face, but I knew if I made eye contact I would totally lose all my remaining composure. "Daniel...." he said, "...please tell me, what the hell was that?" All I could do was chew my lower lip until the urge to bust out laughing subsided. When I finally was able to answer him, we both almost hit the floor laughing (of course, Pooka laughed along with us). I can only say thank God that he only made this sound a couple of times before he moved on to bigger and better!

I would be interested in these replies, as I also have a serious screamer. But Pooka screams when someone is sitting 5 feet away from him - I swear some of my hearing loss is due to his incessant shrieking. He doesn't do it all the time though, usually he's whistling or babbling in "Pooka language". His screaming is SO loud though that sometimes in the middle of his tirade I hear the cat whimper, I know its hurting her ears too.

When I first started planning on getting a grey and then after I got Pooka iin 2002 I spent a lot of time on that forum (it looked much different then). I got a lot of advice and suggestions from the folks there, was curious to see if any of those old friends were on here.

I remember when I first got Pooka the folks at the UpAtSix forum were a godsend in helping me through his first couple of weeks with me. Just curious if any of those old friends are on here. If so, say hello! Peace Daniel & Pooka Edited: Wow I just realized that forum is still around. It was down for a looong time.

Great thank you! Yeah shelling is necessary in this case - these nuts are VERY hard, even for him.

The place Pooka and I am renting right now has a walnut tree in the back yard, and it is quite prolific. I've pulled a few fresh nuts off and they look rather hale. Pooka loves walnuts, but I've only given him nuts I've purchased, none that I've harvested (I don't eat them myself, I've been allergic to them all my life). Would walnuts fresh off the tree be safe for him?

Pooka and I thank everyone for your warm welcome! A bit about myself: I am pushing 50, going to college full time studying anthropology (focus on archaeology) and and working part time as janitor at the local library, just to pay the rent while I'm studying! Pooka is almost 12, his birdday (hatchday) is Feb 2, 2002 making it 02/02/02. Had I known I would have called him Deuce. The name Pooka is an Anglicized derivative of Puka/Puca, a Celtic animal spirit often illustrated as a grey horse or bird (the same source as Shakespeare's "Puck" in his "Midsummer's Night Dream"). We also share our home with a stubby-tailed grey tabby named Stormy; her sister Misty died this past March and we all still miss her. As I've mentioned elsewhere, Pooka is a good talker but just not a very strong one - his lexicon is small and he adds to it only as HE wishes. Almost every night for 11 years I've kissed him on the beak and said "Time to go night night! Love you bird!" and he only repeats the first half. He will call out to Stormy "She's my kitty kitty!" but he's pretty stubborn about what he picks up. He picks up whistles easily (he whistles the Harry Potter theme thanks to my roommate) and sounds - he coughs and burps much to my chagrin. As an archaeology student I've studied ancient food preparation and how it relates today...my last project was to cook a recipe found on a 4000 year old Babylonian cuneiform tablet. It is interesting to note that many of the flavors/ingredients used then are still incorporated in today's dishes from that region. Oh, and my second passion is cooking!

Thank you. Were you by any chance on the "upatsix" forums many years ago?

LOL not a song lyric - that's what I say to him when he's acting up.

One more older video of Pooka that I find rather amusing. He's saying...well, I'm sure you can make it out!

Yes and the same bird I think was at 1:15 or so. Both neighbors to the left and right have chicken flocks. I've yet to get Pooka to repeat any of my Arabic. He seems to be at a plateau on his language skills. He's not repeated any new words in a couple of years.

He tends to make sure to be my alarm clock. I've fallen asleep on the sofa many times of course and once I felt this stabbing pain on my toe (For several years I had unchecked diabetes so my toes are rather numb); I woke up to see Pooka on the arm of the sofa getting ready to lunge again. That Pooka does not like toes is a known fact among friends. His bird-sitter, who watches him when I leave town, has mentioned coming out of the shower with just a towel wrapped around her torso and having to run down the hallway because Pooka has fluttered to the floor and started attacking the toes.

This is one of my favorite Pooka pics - this is the view I had when I woke up from a nap on the sofa...! I can just hear Peter Griffin's voice from Family Guy saying "Hi. You sleepin'?"