My brother has a cockatiel named Nicole that he’s had for years.  A month ago he retired from his job at Honeywell Aerospace and bought a quaker parrot.  Here’s an email update on Nick and Nicole.  Jerry writes: My new bird Nick is totally spoiled now.  I open his cage every morning then sit down in my recliner.  He gets out and stretches a bit, then it’s down in the floor, waddling toward me.  He tries to climb my leg to get to me, but his toe nails aren’t sharp enough to grip the fabric of my pants.  So he sits and watches me until I put my hand down so he can get it.  Then it’s wrestle my fingers time.  He likes for me to tease him so he can fake biting me.  He doesn’t clamp down but likes to nibble.  He loves to be petted like a dog, and scratched behind his ears.

Of course Nicole flies over to my shoulder.  She has to stake her claim.  It took awhile but Nick has learned that if he tries to get too close to Nicole, I put him back on his cage.  So he moves just close enough to cause her to hiss at him, then he goes back to nibbling at my buttons and belt loops.

I have two little ladders from the floor up to Nick’s cage.  He will flutter down off his perch, then climb back up the ladder.  He doesn’t like that Nicole flies and he can’t.  But Miss Nicole gets her overdue wing clipping tomorrow.  She’s getting too brave and is going to hurt herself bouncing off walls and things.  Last time her feathers were allowed to grow enough for flight, she flew out the door and down past the neighbor’s house.  Then she sits there in an unknown place and chirps in a real panic for me.  I let her ride my shoulder back to the house and she went straight for her cage.

Anyway, both birds are like kids.  Nick still purrs at me like a kitten.