Results: A Parrot's Concept of Home

Do you find it easy to adjust to a new house? My father wrote: We moved from one residence to another after 20 years. We put Bongo in our car and drove to our new location. During that drive he was extremely quiet. We brought him into our new home and put him in his cage. He remained quiet, certainly trying to figure out the new cage setting. We fed him his regular dinner and he remained quiet. Late in the evening we turned out his light and went to bed. When we began stirring in the morning he reacted, and he said, "I … Came … Home."

At some point Bongo realized that if my parents walked out to the garage, he was going to be left home alone. He also figured out that if the phone rang as they were leaving, they would run back in to answer it. And from then on, their phone began to ring every time they started to leave. Would you fall for this trick?

How do you feel about boarding your pets? Several times my parents boarded Bongo at a local vet clinic when they went away on vacation. The first time he went, he didn't know where he was going. But the next time they packed him up in his travel cage and strapped him in their car, he spent the entire trip exclaiming "I'm such a good bird!"

Do your pets like going outside? Bongo's been learning his way around my neighborhood. He says hello when we get close to the houses where people hang out on their porch and talk to us. He knows when we get to an intersection, we're supposed to beep (because of crosswalk buttons.) It was a rough transition for him to move in with us, but after several months there was a day when I took him out for a walk, we came back, I set his backpack down on the kitchen table, and he looked at me and said "I came home." I knew then he was going to be okay.