Occupied.

[Inara]

Occupied. O C C U P I E D. ----- Inara strikes again.

 

When HRH Inara wants "up up," or "teeko teeko" and I'm busy doing other things, I call back to her, "Sorry I'm occupied with __________ (fill in the blank). Busy. Will up up later."

 

This morning, she was on her mobile perch and I dangled her rope that she likes to swing on in front of her and asked her if she wanted to swing. She looked at it, and said clear as a bell, "Occupied." I nearly died laughing. Naturally, I took that as a "no."

 

Later in her cage during her "closet talking practice" she said "occupied" several times interspersed with her usual R2D2 whirs, squeaks, and her other words.

 

Meanwhile this morning, she did a short little flutter/hop from the lower part of her mobile perch onto the couch next to me. So I took the opportunity to encourage her to fly from her perch to near my hand. (Operant conditioning with positive reinforcement -- meaning that Inara makes the choice it is not thrust upon her as in the more Pavlovian classical conditioning). Which, by the way, made viewing this video all the more timely.

 

Within a handful of tries, Inara was happily choosing to fly from her perch to near my hand in gradual increments of distance, beginning with her perch about 2 inches away and ending up with it between 10" and a foot away before we ended it while still on a positive note. She really appeared to enjoy it, and it likely will not be long before she'll be flying from across the room to my hand. Unless, of course, she's O C C U P I E D.

[danmcq]

LOL, I love this! I find this peculiarly interesting that she picked up on the key word "Occupied" in your phrase. Rather than "Sorry" or another word. It again underlines the impressive cognitive abilities of our greys. It shows a true form of deductive reasoning to come to that conclusion. Then use it correctly in response to your request. In fact, now she has set the standard for you. Just say "Occupied" from now on and leave out all the other dribble. Thanks for sharing this!

[Inara]

Well, I'd love to believe it is because she is so brilliant, but I'm inclined to think that it is because out of the sentence(s) that "occupied" is the most interesting combination of sounds. However, her timing was spot on! I will take your suggestion, and from now on just start saying, "Occupied," and see how she rolls with it

[danmcq]

LOL Inara, I was just kidding about just saying "Occupied". I would still tell her exactly what your doing, like I'm Vacuuming, Washing the Dishs etc. then say I'm occupied. We have always described everything we do to Dayo for example. Like I'm washing the dishes, I'm Vacuuming , I'm XXXXXXXX you name it, then we say "Just Wait". So he many times describes what we are doing when we're doing a task. Then he will yell at Jake because he is squawking wanting attention "Just wait Jake!".

Edited October 26, 2013 by danmcq

[aerial.2000]

how old is Dayo again? I cant wait until Marco starts to really talk up a storm like that to Me course I better figure out what she is "calling me" when she does ... I always tell Marco what Im doing too but shes not started to repeat any of that "yet"

[danmcq]

Dayo is 6 years old.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

I think Inara IS brilliant! LOL! She has associated the word " occupied", as being very important and is trying to figure out what it means. It is important to you, so it is important to her. She will continue to work on it, until she has it figured out. A milestone! Maybe put a switch on her cage door that goes from green to red if she pulls on it! Nancy

[Sanveaz]

That is just too cute. I talk to Escher all the time but will he talk to me noooo. I would have laughed my head off if he told me that.

[Inara]

She does make me laugh too many times a day to count, that's for sure! She's 27 months so we have a lifetime to go together -- I have a feeling in 20 years, she'll be piloting a starship! LOL