Free Pickles The Parrot: A Humorous Look At Life With An African Grey by Georgi Abbott Page A

product so we’re always looking for tasty
new items. He has hundreds of toys but will tire of some quickly so
we are constantly rotating. Sometimes just moving a toy to a new
spot makes it more interesting but sometimes we need to put it away
for a few weeks or months and when we bring it back out, he’s
thrilled with the ‘new’ toy. All the freedom outside the cage isn’t
good enough if he doesn’t have enrichment or attention.
    Learning about parrots and learning how to
adapt to them is an on-going process, a lot of work and every day
there is a new challenge. There is no other pet in the world that
requires as much work, attention and patience as a parrot does. On
the other hand, there is nothing more rewarding than a happy
parrot.
     
     

Chapter 5
     
    Working & Living at the RV Park
     
    A couple of years after getting Pickles, we
got out of the fly shop. We had owned and operated it for 10 years
and it was time to move on to something else. An opportunity arose
for us to operate the RV Park, part of the Wildlife Park in
Kamloops so we took the job for one season—from April until mid
September.
    We were provided with an RV, large enough to
provide an area for Pickles. We set up a smaller cage, a new play
stand, a bunch of toys and a boing (a coiled wire, wrapped with
rope for climbing and swinging). The entire RV Park could be seen
through the windows, so this provided all kinds of activity and
entertainment for Pickles. He could watch us working outside or
coming and going to the registration office/convenience store so
Pickles was quite happy with his new digs.
    We took a tour of the Wildlife Park the first
chance we got. It’s amazing with all the animals and birds, and we
even took in a Raptor’s show. Vultures, owls, hawks and eagles were
paraded one at a time and some flew through the audience on recall.
All the animals, with the exception of the Peacocks, were
indigenous to the area and were provided good habitat and lots of
room to live out their days, as all had been rescued and unable to
be rehabbed back to the wild.
    There were a lot of birds hanging around the
RV Park, many we were unfamiliar with because of the difference in
elevation. Crows were in abundance so Pickles was in his glory
talking to each and every one. Now and then the Peacocks would
escape and they were beautiful in the RV Park surroundings. The
campers were thrilled to see them but during their mating period,
we had to watch the kids for fear these big aggressive birds would
hurt them.
    Pickles learned many, many more bird songs
and he was happy to share the songs with all the people in the
Park. Most visitors were not aware of Pickles and some were
confused about the bird sounds coming from our corner of the
grounds. Pickles would do his Nuthatch impression and people would
look around for the bird. Their eyes would look skyward at the
screeching of the hawk and we were asked if a lake is hidden in the
woods after the haunting sound of a loon fills the evening air.
Pickles began to answer the Peacocks’ mating songs and I had to
wonder if that’s why they were escaping—in search of this new,
potential mate.
    Across the river, along the valley bottom,
there are cattle grazing and bellowing. Pickles learned to moo,
which was quite embarrassing when we’d go for our evening walks
through the RV Park, with Pickles in his backpack. He’d moo the
whole way and of course, him being in back, it appeared as if we
were the cows.
    Once again, Pickles became a draw for
customers. He had a play stand in the store, he went for walks, got
to socialize and everyone was fascinated with him. Soon, new
customers were arriving and having heard about Pickles through the
RV grapevine, had decided to make a stop on the way to their
destination.
    Pickles isn’t very talkative while in his
backpack outdoors, preferring to caw at the crows, sing to the
birds and mumble like a little old man to himself so that you can
only catch the odd word. When