Inara

Greycie needs her own sitcom! : )

Kevin you are wonderful, and have done so much for us all. Thank you so much for transferring this incredible home and archive. Will definitely be there at greyforums.org.

Always love seeing and hearing about Alfie. Such a sweeheart, and I agree. When our fids trust us, they look to us for our reactions and know that everything is alright.

Oh I sooo love this, and the photos are adorable! HRH is a total shredder. She could care less about chewing wood (hence I have to take her in a few times a year to get her beak blunted down) but she loves loves loves to shred, paper especially and her boings of course. She also enjoys untying knots, and unscrewing wingnuts that hold things onto her cage bars. I have to say that I have never in all of these years thought of putting a telephone book or catalog in her cage for her...... guess what I'll be doing.... :D

Good: Being able to share life with one of the most empathetic and fascinating creatures on the planet. Being a major sci-fi nerd, I just think of HRH as an alien species with whom I have a wonderful friendship like Han Solo and Chewbacca, or the Mandolorian and Baby Yoda The Bad: having to wake up with the sun every day now that I am retired. I would soooo love to sleep in. Just even until 8 a.m. The Ugly: I tell people that living with parrot is like living with a punk rock band of toddlers gone wild on tour. Constant hullabaloo, mess, poop, litter, and things beaked, broken, and a noise level that many people find irritating. Very expensive to boot and there is not a band of roadies to clean up after the band.....

HRH Inara detests any kind of dish that sits around. She will tip it and dump it lickitysplit. Fixed her wagon with these: https://www.caitec.com/birds/bird-cages/accesories/exterior-feeders-3/ Not only does she like them, she loves to hear her own voice in the one that I have that holds her drinking water dish. She does radio free Inara broadcasts from her little sound chamber often of a late afternoon. I like them because they contain the eating mess, and if I need someone else to come feed and water her, the outer plastic chambers slide up and the dishes come out from the outside of the cage since many birds do not take kindly to people reaching in and out of their homes, HRH included! Really, I would not worry about putting a food dish in his cage since he eats plenty outside of his cage and is free to roam, as long as he has plenty of access to water. Do you close his cage door at night for him to sleep? If so, maybe some type of clamped on dish that you can stick a couple nutriberries or some type of non-spoiling food for overnights in case he gets hungry. HRH calls them her "night night cookies" as she gets one in her beak and one tossed into her external feeder when I put her to bed. You are not a meanie or a terrible hooman. She also detests it if I change *any* toys in her cage. She likes her exact ones, in their same exact places, and when they wear out, she wants the exact replacements. I get it. It is her house. I wouldn't want someone coming into my home and rearranging things all the time. So your buddy keeps trying to tell you to keep that @#*(# thing out of his home. LOL

Am so glad to hear that Tinkerbell is doing well. Whew!!

In the evenings, I like to have some Redi-Whip whipped cream in my coffee. One day I was thinking to myself, "Geeze, they sure don't put as much in these cans as they used to..." Later that evening, I was sitting in the kitchen, and HRH Inara was in there on her perch in front of the "squirrels" windows. Joe came in and opened the fridge, and Inara made the perfect sound of canned whipped cream being squirted into a mouth!! I looked at Joe, and he said, "OK, I know this looks bad...." I burst out laughing and he confessed that he often when I was not around (apparently) would swing by the fridge and shoot some whipped cream out of the can straight into his mouth! Then he looked at Inara and said, "Stool pigeon!" Which of course made me laugh harder. These are some great stories! I loved reading them. Keep them coming

HRH Inara also enjoys whistling. When she was little, Joe taught her, "If I only had a brain," and I taught her the first few bars of "Over the Rainbow," so she uses those for our separate flock calls. Then hers is one she made up herself. She also (as many of you know, loves "Walk Like an Egyptian") can't wait for the whistling part in her favorite song. She gives a loud whistle after her danger sound when she is on the ground, and a few months ago took to doing what I call her "Taxi whistle" every time she convinces me to give her a ride back to her cage from another room. She hops on my shoulder and gives that whistle. She also has a singing song that she made up that goes like this: "I love carrrrrrots." With the carrrrots going up and emphasis on the 2nd syllable. She sings it in a pirate sounding voice (wth??hahah). She recently added a 2nd verse to it, "Joe loves carrrrrots." She really is delighted when she gives a whistle, if we answer with our own identifying one. And if we whistler hers, she dances with joy. OMG the stories of the door lock sound, and the "wait here comes the good part" foot, just slayed me!

HRH can also be pretty fleetfooted ! She does love toes, but doesn't bite mine. We play "get those toesies," where I hold my foot up and she come running and then I try to grab her beak with my toes. She loves it, crazy girl ! HOWEVER....she hates it when I try to put socks on in front of her. That is when she will move light lightening and try to nip at my foot. She's like a birdie F1 car at that point!

Well, also as an Internet oldtimer (back in the day when I had to stick my phone receiver into the modem cradle and telnet from Wyoming into Norman, OK to get access), I hope this forum never goes away. It was so comforting to have enough energy to pop back in and to see old friends and fids. Melts my heart. I suspended my Facebook account ages ago and I left all of my groups and deleted everyone from my friend list except for immediate family. It went from being a fun place to game and chat with friends to a quagmire of vitriol. Nope. I am on MeWe which has no ads, no trackers, no click bait, and I only use it for a small private group of 4 dear friends and myself so we can chat daily and share pics of our kids and grandkids. This forum seriously could be considered the Bible of Greys. There is such a wealth of info here that is unparalleled. I'm here until the fat lady sings.... xoxo Jane and HRH

Sukei is such a lucky bird to have such a fierce and loving champion in you, Kevin. That was quite a convoluted adventure getting him here, but you refused to give up. All's well that ends well, and well worth Sukei's extending his birthday celebration for weeks. hahaha

Oh my gosh could Dorian be any cuter??! So sweet to watch his tentative steps and then braver and braver!

Dorian is a champ!! Gosh, nine years have flown by! (pun intended hee). HRH sleeps in her home cage that is on the other side of an adjoining wall to our bedroom. A few years ago, she decided that she loved to be covered at night. I called the cover, her "night night." Well, she loves it and depending on whether it is daylight savings time or not, she likes to go "night night" at about 5 PM but will pipe up with comments from the peanut gallery as we are having our dinner and going about our own evening routines, but settles completely down into a great snooze by 6PM. In the winter, she starts stirring at 7 a.m. and if we do not hustle to uncover her, after she has said, "Good morning out there" in a sweet little voice, she will then switch to a sharp whistle and if that does not work, then it is her pterodactyl shriek! However, I am usually up most mornings by 5:30 or 6:00 so I have to sneak past her and go through the big open area and into the kitchen to make coffee, then sneak back. If she gets any hint I am up -- there's no avoiding letting her out for the day. She will fly to come look for us, or get this: We have an open balcony that overlooks the downstairs where there is a sunroom that we use for our exercise equipment. She will walk to the edge of the balcony and poke her head through the balusters to peer down to see what might be going on down there. If one of us is down there, she will just throw herself off the balcony and then flutter down. The first time she did it, she talked herself through it. 1st she gave her danger sound which is like tchoo tchoo! Then she said, "OK. OKaaaay. OK" and tossed herself over. She reminded me of someone about to skydive for the first time. Other times she will walk to come find us. Anytime she is on the floor she will give her danger sound then a sharp whistle. She can really walk fast, too when she wants to. There is something so heartwarming when our greybies come to look for us. Melts my heart.

What fantastic news, and everything points to that this place was meant to be yours yours yours! I so loved looking at the photos, and reading the descriptions. Congrats!! Natch, we all will want more piccies. Looks like you already have done a lot of mowing and cleaning up. Lovely !