Pickles speaks in 3 different voices – mine, Neil’s and his own. Things can get confusing and this is a typical conversation around our house when Neil and I are in separate rooms …
Pickles says something in my voice.
Neil - What?
Me – What.
Pickles – What?
Neil – What did you say?
Pickles – Huh?
Neil – What did you say?
Me – Nothing.
Pickles – Huh?
Me – I didn’t say anything.
Neil – I thought you said something.
Pickles – What?
Neil – I said, I thought you said something.
Me – Not me.
Pickles – What?
Me – I SAID, NOT ME!!
Neil – Never mind. Must have been Pickles.
Pickles – Huh?
Neil – Damn bird.
We have never ‘trained’ Pickles to talk and almost always converse with him using context as a way for him to understand the meaning of words. We used to encourage him to talk though, and repeat the words until he could say them but we don’t do that anymore; we just have casual conversations and if he picks up words from this, that’s fine, but if he doesn’t, that’s okay too.
Regardless, it’s still amazing that he knows the meaning of the words he does use. Sure, sometimes he babbles like a young child learning to talk but he’s very good at using his words to communicate with us. Sometimes he gets a little mixed up but you usually get his point.
I find it interesting that he seems to understand the difference between a statement and a question. And that he might ask a question, not understand the answer but be happy with the response. He will often ask, “What’s this?” or “What’s that?” and if he’s shocked, surprised or scared of something, it’s “What’s THAT?” with the emphasis on the word ‘that’. Upon receiving an answer to his question, he will usually respond with “Huh?” seeming to want clarification or he will say “Huh” as a statement, seeming to accept the answer and possibly thinking something like “Well, isn’t that interesting.”
Sometimes, we’re not sure if he understands what he’s saying or randomly manages to insert the proper words. Sometimes he’ll blurt out words we’ve never heard before, and may never hear again, but he says it perfectly clear so that’s there’s no mistaking what he said and it’s said in perfect context.
Neil and I seldom argue, and we never fight, but there was one time when we were arguing. Neil and I each do our own laundry but I usually do all the towels and sheets. Neil wanted to do his laundry but the dryer was still full of linen and we were standing in the laundry room arguing about who was going to fold the towels. Pickles sat on the freezer with his head going side to side, watching as each of us spoke. Finally, he piped up with “It doesn’t matter!” Neil laughed and told him “Stay out of this Pickles.” Pickles sat there looking at him for a moment then said, “Neil?” Neil said, “Yes?” and Pickles gave him the raspberry. I’m pretty sure it was just a coincidence that Pickles said that it didn’t matter but it was funny none-the-less.
One day, he was playing in his wooden house that’s attached to the wall and next to his ropes and boings. He was going in and out – to the box then to the balcony - and each time he went inside, I could hear him saying “What’s this?” and then he’d come back out laughing. He didn’t seem to be directing his question at me and I thought he was just being silly but at some point I got curious. His box is fastened quite high on the wall so I walked over, stood on my tiptoes, peered inside and discovered a raw pasta bow. We don’t usually buy them for our pasta but I had picked up a box of them for a particular dish he was preparing and I forgot that I had dropped one inside for Pickles to discover. Being unfamiliar with this item, Pickles wasn’t afraid of it but he was uncertain, curious and obviously amused by it since he kept popping out of the box laughing.
I picked up the bow and pretended to eat it, showing him that it was food. “Its pasta Pickles. Mmmm, good.” I said. He scampered over to the edge, peered at me curiously and said, “Well, isn’t that nice.” I had never heard him say that phrase before and I’ve never heard it since, but there it was. I tossed the bow back into his box but hit the side of the wall and as it fell to the ground, Pickles said “oops’.
I was pretty impressed. He had seen something new, asked what it was, remarked how nice it was after being told and said ‘oops’ as a proper reaction to it falling to the ground. But of course he blew it immediately after by saying, “You got poop on your beak”. Cuz I didn’t.
I love his word ‘huh’. It denotes so much with him and he uses it a lot. He can be in the middle of eating, attacking a toy or sleeping and if you say something, he will whip his head up and say “Huh?” Or if you say something new to him, his way of getting you to repeat it is “Huh?” He never says it out of the blue, or for no reason – except maybe when he’s talking to a toy. But then I’m sure the toy (in his head) has obviously said something that merits repeating.
Sometimes you get the really long “Huuuuuuhhhhhh?” and that means he’s really confused. And his facial expression really matches his inquisitiveness. You can almost see him raising an eyebrow.
He definitely understands ‘Be right back’ and will use it often when he walks away from us, only to return shortly. He tells us to ‘be right back’ if we walk out of the room, or we’ll tell him the same and he’s happy knowing we’re not leaving him for a long time. I believe he knows what ‘long time’ means too because he shows his disappointment when it’s spoken. For instance, if Neil goes somewhere and Pickles keeps asking ‘Daddy home?’ I’ll say he’ll be ‘gone long time’ and he fluffs up and pouts. He doesn’t ask ‘when’ daddy will be home, his way of asking is to say “Daddy home?” and if daddy drives up, it’s “Daddy’s home!”
He understands the word ‘later’. If he asks for a snack, or to go for a walk or something else he wants, and we tell him “Later, baby” he’s content to wait a few minutes – although sometimes we get the ‘raspberry’ to let us know he’s not happy about having to wait. Sometimes we’ll use the phrase “It’s too early, baby” when he wants his supper or if he’s ready to go to bed. I don’t know what he thinks ‘later’ means but he understands that he will get what he wants, just not right now. But where he gets confused is when a few minutes go by and he figures its time, he’ll say, “He said he’d be right back.” To him, ‘be right back’ is somebody or something will be there soon and ‘he’ is anybody, both male and female. He knows what he’s talking about and we know what he’s trying to say so obviously it makes sense, even though it doesn’t really.
Speaking of the word ‘baby’, Pickles always uses this word to show endearment. If he’s sucking up to us for something, he calls us ‘baby’ in a sweet little voice. If he wants some loving or cuddling, it’s “Ohhh, baaaybeeeee”.
His laughing is contagious and I don’t care what any bird behaviorist or scientist says, I know the laughter is real and that he truly finds things funny. There’s the snide little chuckle he has for the times he’s mildly amused by some little trouble he’s gotten himself into, the snicker when he’s teasing us or the dog and then there’s the gleeful, out loud, outright belly laugh when something is especially entertaining to him.
I remember one day while Pickles was in the aviary and I was sitting next to it having my morning coffee. I was attracted to loud laughter and when I looked in his direction, I noticed a bunch of baby sparrows taking a sand bath in a patch of dirt a couple of feet from Pickles’ perch. They were bathing, frolicking and a couple of them were playing together. The two that were playing, were practically attached at the talons and were rolling as one in the dirt then separating to hop and flap around until they would collide and roll again. It was the cutest thing to watch and I found myself laughing out loud at them too. Pickles thought it was hilarious and couldn’t keep his eyes off them. Obviously, his laughter is
extreme happiness on his part.
He definitely understands ‘last snack’. When we offer pine nuts straight out of the bowl he will eat them leisurely, one at a time, until we warn him it’s the last one he can have then suddenly he’s in a panic to scoop a few into his beak. “That’s it!” he says proudly through a mouthful of stolen snacks.
Once, in his panic to cop more snacks, he jumped on the bowl I was holding - which is just a small ramekin – and I wasn’t expecting his body weight so he and the bowl crashed to the floor. The pine nuts scattered everywhere and he was after them like a madman calling “Last snack! That’s it! Last snack! That’s it!” as the little liar ran like the dickens scooping them up before I could stop him.
It appears he knows that grapes contain juice because he’ll ask for a grape and while eating it he goes “mmmmm, juice”. On the other hand, he always calls toast ‘juice’ which makes no sense at all. He used to say ‘toast’ but now when I hand some to him and tell him “Here’s your toast” he always says “Juice?” in reply. It’s never a statement but always asked and I have no idea what he’s trying to ask me and why he’s switched his words for this item. But it’s almost like he wants confirmation for this – which he never gets because we always correct him. But why ‘juice’? Why doesn’t he use another word, like ‘snack’, ‘breakfast’ or ‘potato’?
He knows a lot of his food by name and will usually toss it if you give him something he didn’t ask for unless it’s something even better than what he requested. He NEVER says “Good morning” or “Want breakfast” except in the morning and he NEVER says “Ni nite”, “Lights off” or “Want covered” unless it’s nighttime and he’s ready for bed and he NEVER asks for supper until a few minutes before suppertime. When it’s almost time for supper, he starts to get very animated about it. It’s as if he thinks we might forget otherwise. We never have – it would be quite impossible unless one lost their hearing.
Pickles went to bed one evening while the sun was still up and the cage is only covered in the front and part of the sides so the window, which was in back of him and off to one side, allowed sunlight to penetrate in to his cage. He was particularly restless and kept climbing down to the bottom and moving around inside until he hollered, “Lights off!” and we realized the sun was shining on him and ruining the nice darkness he enjoys. To him, the sun is a light and can be turned off which is what we did, by closing the window curtains.
We always know when he drops a toy, food, or something that he didn’t mean to drop because he will exclaim “oop” but will never say it unless he wants it back.
He’s never learned ‘I love you’ no matter how much I say it, but he will always respond with “mmmmwwwwa!” as a kiss in response.
He absolutely understands “No bite!” if we think he’s about to bite us, and he’ll usually turn it into a gentle nip but if he’s really angry, it doesn’t always work. If he’s about to chew on the drapes we’ll say “No chew!” and he will stop but this irks him so he’ll pretend to lung his head at them a few times as if to tease us – but without actually touching them.
“Stop it!” will almost always make him stop doing what he’s doing, although reluctantly. He’s just got to push the envelope at times. Often, when he knows that what he’s about to do is taboo; he will start to do it but tell himself “Stop it!” and then obey himself. I watched him running back and forth at one of Neeka’s toys that was abandoned on the couch one day. Pickles ran at it but as he got there he yelled, “Stop it!” and turned and ran away only to come back and repeat the same actions over and over; back and forth he went. I’m not sure if he was reprimanding himself or if he was scared of the toy, telling the toy to stop it or and having a war with himself about whether or not to approach the scary thing.
Pickles will almost always talk to anybody and isn’t shy about showing off his vocabulary and his wide range of sounds. He loves strangers and adores young children. When children are around, it’s as if he understands that children are vulnerable so he talks to them in a very sweet voice.
After the first book came out, a local young girl, got wind of it, contacted me through FaceBook and told me she was doing a presentation for her class at the elementary school. She then asked if I would be willing to bring Pickles that day and I immediately responded to accept. This would be great for Pickles because he doesn’t get to see crowds of people very often, ever since we sold the flyshop. The young lade had been a frequent visitor to our shop, usually accompanying her father when he came in for fishing supplies and, although much younger at the time, spend many an hour talking to Pickles so she knew him quite well.
Plans were laid with her teacher and it was decided that I would bring Pickles into the classroom after the presentation so that the children weren’t distracted. I had offered to give each child a free download of the Ebook (if they didn’t have an Ebook, they could just download it to their computers) but then I remembered that there were a couple of mild swearing words in the last book so it was decided that classmates could only download it with permission from their parents. Arrangements were all finalized and Neil offered to accompany me so that he could distract Pickles should he get antsy while I was giving a run down of Pickles and taking questions.
It was a cold winter day with snow on the ground so we packed Pickles in his traveling cage and threw a heavy towel over top to walk from the parking lot to the school. We also brought a small playstand – it was about 3 feet long and 3 feet high with a couple of branches and hanging toys and circular swing/boing. We sat in the visitor’s area waiting to be called into class and Pickles chatted, from inside his cage, at any kids or teachers who happened to walk by. Pickles was perfectly comfortable, I was a little nervous.
Eventually we were invited in and we set Pickles’ cage on a table in front of the class while Neil set up his playstand nearby. At first, Pickles just kind of looked around in awe then he started bobbing his head and snickering at all the kids. Very quickly, he was ready to come out of the cage and be placed on his stand. We ended up moving it to a desk right in the middle of the class so that Pickles towered over all the sitting children and was able to survey the land.
Lots of questions were asked and answered while Pickles mostly laughed and blew the odd kiss. This got lots of laughs but they obviously wanted to hear Pickles speak. Of all the times for him to mum up! He said a few words now and then but usually while someone was talking so it was never really heard. Oh well, Pickles was still a hit and I was presented with a written copy of Tasha’s presentation and a lovely picture she drew of Pickles. She had set up pictures of Pickles’ book and newspaper articles about him, among other things, and they were displayed on the blackboard. I was sorry I didn’t get to sit in on it because it looked awesome. Some pictures were taken and then we packed up and went to the hall benches to put on our coats to leave the building.
The minute we set Pickles down, he started yelling at everyone walking by and using all his words. Silly and embarrassing stuff which echoed loudly through the vast halls of the quiet school. Sure, NOW he talks.
Pickles usually gets real quiet when he’s covered so I threw the towel over his cage and we walked down the hall, out the door, down the sidewalk and out to the parking lot. But the towel wasn’t stopping him this time. It was a long walk of shame as we walked past teachers and other visitors while Pickles barked and shouted “Stupid potato head!” over and over while I explained that there was a parrot beneath the towel to anyone who would listen as we hurried by. I dunno, maybe they thought I had a rude, talking dog in a kennel.
It can be argued that some of the things he says and does, do not really make sense but when I take into account the words he does know, his awareness and his reactions, his attempts at communication certainly appear to be valid, if not a little mixed up. I tend not to believe some of the writing on their intelligence but too often, it’s difficult to rebuke. I know he’s smart and he can obviously talk and communicate with the voc
abulary abilities he has learned but to what extent? I don’t know but it’s certainly interesting and it challenges my mind along with his.
Chapter 12
I Vant To Drink Your Blood
“I'm sorry I bit you mommy. I was just so excited when daddy brought me in to wake you up in bed. I ran as fast as I could from the foot of the bed to get to you & before I knew it, out of excitement, I mistook your big flabby bare arm for an obstacle. If it's any consolation, it didn't taste very good. But I must say, it's truly fascinating watching all the different colors develop on your skin - it's like a beautiful blue, black & purple rainbow. And I made it just for you.”
“~ Mommy, Mommy! Pickles won't let go of my ear. Pickles, let go of Neeka's ear. Pickles! Let go of his ear! All right Pickles, give me the ear.... ~”
“I bit my mommy's finger today but I didn't mean to. She invited me to step up from my rope to go for a walk but I kinda lost my balance on the rope and beaked her hand trying to steady myself. I don't know why I insist on destroying my main mode of transportation.”
“When your mommy hands you a snack, don't assume her finger is a side dish. Cuz it's not. It's a food holder that drops your food on the floor when it bleeds. And then you end up going hungry.”
“~ After several minutes of utterly dull conversation I began to think of her not as a woman but as a human, then not as a human but as an animal, then not as an animal but as a source of high-grade protein.~ So I bit her.”
“oooooo, I bit daddy really hard today. He was holding me on his hand while he talked on the phone and I wrapped my beak around his thumb and bit both sides and drew blood. Then when he set me down, I bit his wrist hard too. I was mad at the person on the other end for stealing daddy's time from me. I sure taught that person a lesson and I doubt they'll try that again.”
Pickles The Parrot Returns: My Continued Adventures with a Bird Brain Page 11