Thursday, November 15, 2007

Kermit... or is it Kremit?


Kermit was the second baby that my parents handraised from Coco and Charlie. He did not get a lot of handling as a baby because shortly after weaning my mother was hospitalized and then not able to do a lot with the birds. I got Kermit when he was 4 years old. Of all the parrots I have known, Kermit has been the most brilliant talker! He constantly amazed me with the things that he said and their appropriateness. When we were packing the birds up to move them to Iowa, my dad opened the big door in the bird room, which the birds had never seen open before. Kermit immediately said, "Shut the door, it's cold in here!" When I was handfeeding Java and Kiwi, he loved to eat the left over baby food. One day he was anxiously hopping from one foot to the other saying his name over and over as a reminder to me that he was waiting his turn. Finally, in an exasperated tone of voice he said, "Why do you think it's taking so long?" The next day, when Alissa brought him over to see the babies while I was feeding them, he said, "Why don't you just get them off the table?" He always seemed to know what he was saying, and would come up with the most appropriate things, entire sentences that we had never heard him use before or probably not ever use again! One of the baby's landed on his cage on day, frightening Kermit. He flipped upside down on his perch and cried out, "Oh No! What do I do now?" He loved to play peek A boo with company, ducking his head around the corner of his cage. One day, when my niece came to visit he stood on top of his cage and said, "Look up" and he twisted his head to look at the ceiling, he followed with "Look out" and he swung his head to look out the window, and then he said, "Look down" and he bent over his cage to look at the floor. I have no idea where he learned that but his words definitely corresponded with his actions.

Kermit had not been handled a lot, and at four years of age had a reputation for giving some fairly good bites. We worked with him and he became the most loving bird of all. He went to live with Maxine who had recently lost her Amazon parrot who was about 65 years of age. She had known him since she was a little girl. Sorry the camera was sideways. I don't know how to straighten out a video clip. You can see what a sweet bird Kermit came to be!!