SAM

half moon parrot

Most of our pets have been four-footed.  Shortly after we moved to Tucson, the children began asking for a bird.   We decided on a half moon parrot and named it Sam.

Sam quickly learned his name and repeated it over and over.  He could say the usual “pretty bird, Sam.”  Much time was spent trying to get him to say “Sam, I Am.”  He would not.  Perhaps we should have read Dr. Suess to him.  He kept us wondering about one sound he made.  We could never decide what he was trying to say until one of the children observed that he only made the sound when someone sneezed.  Sure enough, every time someone sneezed, Sam sneezed too.

Sam had a travel cage and went on most trips with us.  He transitioned from Tucson to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas without incident.  When Butch, the one of a kind dog,  entered the picture, Sam gave a few initial squawks and then paid no attention to him.  Butch was not at all sure what to make of the creature in the cage, but soon became accustomed to him.  He never barked at Sam.

Sam would move from one person’s outstretched finger to another and liked to be carried.  He actually preferred shoulders to hands.  Ken was the tallest member of the family and his shoulders were Sam’s favorite.  Parrots use their beaks for help navigating.  Sam would move from one shoulder to the other holding the back of Ken’s shirt collar with his beak.  This made a tiny “V” on top of the collar each time he moved.  This was not too good for shirts.  He also liked to watch our world from the top of curtain rods.  This required balancing with his beak on the curtains or drapes.  He notched a few drapery tops in his lifetime.

He would stay on the floor when the children were playing.  Charles had several remote controlled trucks and Sam liked to ride on them.  His favorite was a little forklift that would go around in a circle.  He would stay on the lift as it went up and down and hold onto the lift as it went round and round.  We waited for him to get dizzy and fall off.  He never did.  He would start a squawking fit when he was removed and  fly back to the lift.

We left for a week and dear friends kept Sam.  This couple was at our house most weekends.  After his visit with them, Sam would begin to squawk loudly whenever the wife came in.  One afternoon she said, I think I know why Sam no longer likes me.  Why?  It seems that she had taken his cage outside in the carport and used a water hose to wash it out.  She said he got pretty upset but not nearly as upset as when she put the vacuum cleaner nozzle into the bottom of the cage.  Umm.  Question:  “Didn’t you take him out of the cage to do this?”  Answer: “Nope, I just left him in it.”  Poor traumatized Sam.

I never thought that Sam had much of a brain, but he knew what he liked and he remembered our friend.  Maybe he really was a smart little bird.