MarcusCAG

That's wretched about the vets... but I am so glad your Betsy seems to be doing better right now. I've been thinking of you guys, and I just hope that she continues to improve, even if it is just gradually--like you mentioned, it really may take some time for her to get all of her energy back.

You write such sweet things about your boy. And, honestly, this will probably sound kind of funny: but there's a definite look of my Marcus about your Issac in these latest pictures, at least to me. You know how you can see a photo of a Grey online or something, and even though they're a Grey, they don't look like your Grey?? Like, maybe there's something about the eyes, or the beak, or something?... Well, in these pictures, for some reason I see a "Marcus look" in your Isaac. It's like maybe they're brothers from years-separated clutches, haha. Anyway, I told you it would sound weird but I just wanted to mention that.

For the longest time, Marcus just would not eat raw, leaf vegetable greens... I would have to puree them in the food processor with an apple or something, and even then he'd only nibble on them. But then I discovered BIG, LEAFY GREENS at a supermarket farther from our house, that I generally am not able to visit. Well, that did it! Kale, collards, and turnip greens are all now rotated as regularly as I can manage, and Marcus generally eats a bit of them each time, if not a lot. It might just have been timing, but I honestly think he doesn't like the 'baby' variety of greens that so many supermarkets sell pre-packaged in bags. So now I have to search out the REAL greens in bunches, like the type of thing my mom grows in her garden. Guess I should plant some next year, huh?

I am so sorry to read all this. I don't have anything constructive to offer like some of the others have, but I just want to express that I truly hope that this trip to the vet can help your little one out, and that whatever damage has been done inside can start mending. Thinking of you...

Those are glorious pictures! Thank you so much for sharing your sweet little boy with the rest of us.

Ooh, yummy chicken bone! That's a great shot of him, thanks for sharing! Do you mind if I ask which backpack variety you are using for Gilbert?

All right, I am happy to announce that, yes, Marcus has started saying my name! I made such a cranky fuss to everyone over him going all-out saying my hubby's name, and now he's finally saying mine. Yay! But the funny thing is, he says our names in completely different tones of voice. My husband gets this loud yell--ROSS!--and I get this teeny, tiny whispery thing: Karen... Karen... And last night, apparently in his mind he wanted the ultimate parront and Marcus combined our names, so occasionally I will now hear the odd Kar-Ross. Hahaha, go figure!!

"TOYS!" Hahaha, I could totally imagine the scene as I read it. Too wonderful, smart little Sully... someone needs to start up the scary organ music whenever it gets quiet when a Grey's out of their cage, they're always up to something!

^^ Morana, Dan, thank you both. Yes, it's wonderful, Marcus seems to be in "full bloom" right now... He just keeps popping out with these conversationally-appropriate phrases at the most unexpected times, it's really a bit startling still, but we do love hearing his ways of expressing his personal little 'take' on this world--sassy though they sometimes may be!

^^ At least it's some improvement. I would be surprised if he did a complete 180 all at once, anyway. Little steps are not necessarily a bad thing, if they take one permanently in a new and better direction.

I especially enjoyed Dave's second post. Hee-hee, imagine Beaker buying groceries and Marcus paying the mortgage, hahaha!... I remember once thinking I would like to get my boys into a routine at night, and for a week or so I sang them songs and tickled their heads and stuff and made a big deal out of "Bedtime" (maybe in the hopes that one of them would pick up on one of the various words I use to describe that time of day, but nothing doing!). Anyway, I'm generally pretty wretched with routines, so that fizzled out pretty quickly. Lately my new 'routine' is to just change their bowls and clean their papers and then announce it's time for bed. Maybe I'll go back to cleaning their papers in the morning in a couple of weeks, instead, who knows? But I can see how it could become an issue if the parrot expects and therefore demands certain activities at a certain time, or if they get too upset if the routine is ever out-of-whack, for whatever reason.

They look so happy outside!!

Thinking of you guys, Paul. Every day I hope to see a post here with a happy-face or something from you... It hasn't happened yet, but I'm praying it will soon.

So Marcus has just been in love with the fact that he can say his Daddy's name anymore: Ross. (I think I maybe heard my name once today but, ahh, until it's a "for sure" thing I'm not getting excited about it.) Anyway, with this new name-calling ability of his, Marcus has discovered that he has some power. Because, of course, when he first started calling "Ross!... Ross!" he would get lots of attention, and his Daddy would come running or simply just respond vocally. So Marcus has started attaching his Daddy's name to all sorts of new and neat things since then, comments and commands and... commands... we've never heard from him before. My husband's habit when he comes home from work is to greet the dog (can't avoid that, really, she is such a jumping jack when he walks in!) and whatever cats are around, he air-kisses me, and then he heads into the shower before he goes to see the boys--the birds. Apparently, Marcus thinks he showers for far too long. I heard strange, garbled things about "Ross, something-something out of the shower NOW!" and other surprises of demands the other night. And today, boy, was Marcus a snooty-patootie: He was yelling stuff for my husband to hear, and yet I really don't think my husband can hear him well through the spray and everything, so he would only call back stuff like "I'm in the shower, Marcus!" every once in a while. It seems that Marcus lost his patience. After listening to my husband's apparent 'excuses' for what he deemed was far too long, as my hubby turned off the water and I heard the shower curtain being opened, Marcus shouted in a louder tone, "Ross, YOU BRAT!" "Did he just call me a brat?" But, wretched me, I was giggling too much in the kitchen to be of much help to the situation. What a stinker! Of course Marcus was basically snubbed while we ate dinner afterward, despite his Ross-this and Ross-that demands. At one point, my husband was like, "Marcus, I'm eating!" Marcus' voice was kind of high and funny-sounding when he immediately called back through the house, "I know that!" I can only imagine his little Grey self in his cage just staring through the bars into the kitchen, hearing us out here in the den, eating our food. Some nights he's invited out during dinnertime to hang out on his playgym, but not tonight. In spite of my gentle suggestions, he never did apologize to his Daddy for calling him a brat, and so he had to wait until dinner was over to get to spend any time with him.

Okay, I might get a few jabs here for this, but I bake and cook fancy dishes in the autumn--and that's really it. I can feel autumn's fingers reaching even through the heat of this August now, telling me its on its way, and today I made up a bowl of banana bread dough to bake this afternoon. I went up into my cupboard and pulled out my pans, la-la-la, and when I looked down at what I held in my hands it struck me like a bolt of lightning: This is Teflon!! You can tell how often I honestly bake, like I said it's only for a few months out of the year (I just get this autumn itch!), and we only got Beaker last year. Did I use these pans last autumn while he was in our home? Or did I just make soups and things, leaving the muffin tins and stuff to get dusty up on the hidden shelves of our kitchen cabinets? I don't remember, but the pans are going in the trash now!! It just scared me to death when I realized what could have happened with these things in the oven. I am so grateful that I can get rid of them now, and protect our boys from a horrible accident. So just a reminder... please be careful when you bake or cook, be aware of what you're using. Your fids lives can depend on it.

Hehe, actually, since we believe that our little flock of four is all male, we often refer to them as "the boys". No human children are involved, at this point, anyway...

Has your routine changed at all? Or perhaps some personal toiletries that were previously of a different variety (cologne, shampoo, whatever) create an odor that freaks him out or something, but maybe by the evening they're a bit dissipated... I'm just sorry to hear about this. I'm sure it's very hard for you all to deal with, Charlie included.

We know, Paul. I hope that you two are reunited soon... but Murphy's a tough little guy, and smart, and he's surviving on his own, at least, which is more than a lot of poor escaped pets could say. You still have that chance of being reunited. And Murphy misses you too, I'm sure of it, like Birdhouse said. Thinking of you.

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Yee, thanks for all the commiseration and the sweet comments, guys! (Judygram, yours made me giggle, thanks!) I just think it's funny, not only do I feed/clean/attend to all the boys all the time, but I can kiss Marcus all over, he sings for me, he lets me pick him up and cuddle him (insofar as he 'cuddles' at this point)... but who does he call for by name? MY HUSBAND! Anyway, I uploaded two videos and will include them here. The one was shot yesterday, a goofy little four-minute conversation I had with Marcus about him calling his Daddy so much; and then the second I took earlier today (because I didn't know yet how the others turned out). It's a short clip of Marcus, literally, saying nothing but "Ross" for a minute and thirty--hehe, I told my husband to 'feel special' because of it. Enjoy!

Thinking of you guys. Hope all is well...

What a sweetie! And her mommy has given her such a nice cage set-up!

That is the type of thing I wish would just float to the top of my consciousness in situations like that. I wonder what the cable guy would have said in response, Dan, if you had been there to make that reply!!

Koko sounds like a little spitfire and Ziggy's match, for sure! I'm glad to hear your doggie responded so well to being "ridden", that can be a big question mark of a situation sometimes, but it sounds like Dallas was a real sweetheart about it all... Please keep the updates coming, I enjoy reading about your menagerie and how they're growing with your family.

This started yesterday morning. It was really kind of funny... Marcus has called my hubby "Daddy" twice, maybe, but for some reason yesterday he popped out with his first name. I rarely call him by his first name, usually I use "pet" names of some sort ('honey', 'doll', whatever), and I always try to refer to him as "Daddy" in the boys' presence. But, those few times I probably called him into the room with some stress in my voice and used his name, like if one of the boys seemed to be in some sort of trouble or something, Marcus apparently was listening. And he just pulled that special designation out of his figurative hat yesterday morning. At first, he didn't get it all out, he kept saying "Ro... Ro" in a funny tone. In the beginning, for me it was like, Is he saying your name? and my husband would just shrug. But by the afternoon Marcus had it down pat, almost perfectly: "Roh-ssss!" And that's practically all that would come out of his beak yesterday, all day long, finally spot-on. "Ross!... Ross!... Ross!" My husband said he thinks he's contact calling. He said it's his new "toy" and he hasn't tired of it yet. He said he thinks it gives him a sense of power. Really, he's probably right with all of those suggestions. And Marcus seems to have no intention of letting up! (Too, I think it's because my husband works such long hours anymore, and the boys--all the pets, really--are so excited when he is finally around the house for any length of time, they want him to spend all his time with them.) So I understand the whole "Daddy mania" thing. Still... I walked into the birdroom once, yesterday I think, and said to Marcus, "What about my name? Are you going to ever say Mommy's name?" Marcus looked me straight in the eye. "Stop!" Well, then! I guess I must be chopped liver, haha! Not only has Marcus never said my name (as far as I can tell, anyhow, maybe he muttered it garbled sometime or something), he's never even called me "Mommy" like my hubby refers to me--I don't even get "Nice Lady" or something like that! Sigh. But the funny thing is, Marcus started up again this morning. "Ross?... Ross! Ross!" My husband was out in the den, trying to ignore him after acknowledging him a few times, yet Marcus remained determined. "Ross! Ross!" And then, amazingly, Marcus apparently addressed me (but how can I know for sure, he won't use my name!!) and demanded to know, "Is he back there?" "Yes, Daddy's back there in the den," I said, or something like it, wanting to bust out laughing. It was almost too much!! I ran and told my husband, Get your headphones off and answer this poor bird! Not that I want Marcus to think he rules the roost or anything, but I don't want to discourage him from learning and using new words, either... Anyway, that's what's been going on here with us this weekend. I shot a couple of videos of Marcus regaling us with his new favorite word, but I have yet to upload any of them, so everybody will have to wait to watch his mind-numbing, repetitive performance. Oh, boo.