Lettuce Alone (pardon the pun) ~~

The stories about my mother could fill a book, and here’s a short one for today, but this one involves one of my dear pets. His name was Rocky, and he was an English parakeet.  The English variety is much larger than the American, and not that the American is any slouch in smartness, but the English is astoundingly bright. First, before I get into the story, let me show you the difference in size of these 2 birds. and the blue one is only to show the color of my Rocky who was a brilliant turquoise:

                                                

I spent many a month working on Rocky’s vocabulary and his understanding of everything in the household.  That first little sentence of, “Pretty birdddd”, took 6 months and sounded like a cross between a human voice and a whistle. But when Rocky realized that he’d actually spoken, well, that boy started a race on words and sentences that couldn’t be matched.  Every single day, there were more and more complete sentences, demands, questions, kisses, and then the culmination of his talent, imitations.  He could imitate me, my father, or my mother perfectly, and this is where the story begins.

Rocky was always allowed the run, or should I say fly, of the house. He loved my Cocker Spaniel, Winnie, and my big yellow cat, who never, ever tried to hurt him. One day, Rocky was zipping around the house as usual when he saw Mom in the kitchen washing dishes. He landed on a chair at the kitchen table which was directly behind Mom and so she couldn’t see him and had no idea he was even there.  So Mom was washing, rinsing, and humming a tune, when all of a sudden this voice said in a polite way, “I want some lettuce”.  Without missing a beat, Mom replied, “I’m sorry, TC (my dad’s name), but my hands are all wet. I’ll get it in a few minutes”.  With that, the voice gets more belligerent and says louder, “I SAID I want some lettuce!”.  My mother blew a gasket at the tone of voice and said very loudly back, “And I said I’d get it later. If you want it so much now, then get it yourself! Gosh!”  The next sound we heard was the sound of a bird laughing like crazy in my father’s voice. Mom was now even more put out and starts a sentence, “What in the world is the matter……” as she turns to see none other than my beloved Rocky bobbing his head up and down in such self satisfaction.  My father and I heard the entire conversation from the living room and it took everything we had not to make a sound and double over in convulsive laughter.  We always said that Rocky was one smart cookie of a bird and really knew the value of a good joke.  I should have put him on stage in Vegas.

Later, gators  XOXOXO