I would first like to introduce myself and my feathered family! My name is Sarah, I'm 20 years old and I live in Ontario with my mother, brother and boyfriend. We have what many would like to call a zoo (especially my father, lol). In our little condo we have 3 cats (2 manx, 1 DSH tabby), 3 rabbits (2 Netherland Dwarves, 1 Fuzzy Lop), 1 dog (JRT x) and then there are 3 fids who will be introduced a little bit later.



I am currently in pursuit of a job at Rogers which help me a lot financially and then I will finally have the money to get my fids a HUGE Java Tree from the States. I'm probably more excited than they are, lol, but I can't wait! I will be getting it for them anyways in the new year as part of their Christmas present. In the spring/summer my boyfriend, Alex, and I are planning to move into our own place. At that point we will only have 1 cat and 2 fids and will soon after that be adding 2 more kittens to the family to keep Misty (my Manx girly) company.



Now, to introduce my kids! My first little one is Lily, an Umbrella Cockatoo. She is about 4.5 years old now, her birthday is June 15. She is a little brat, as most 2 year old children tend to be, lol, but I love her dearly. She has her little quirks, her ups and downs, and her nasty hormonal months, but we all love her to death. She has a very limited vocabulary which consists of "Hi" "Lily" "Hiiii Lily" "Wiwwy?" as well as a few whistles and her irresistible array of cackles, giggles and laughs. She is a real riot to have around, although if you're in the room there is just NO keeping herself entertained, lol.



The second addition was Kendi, a Congo African Grey who will be 2 years old on Jan. 5th. He is a smarty pants in his own right. To say he has the capacity of a 5 year old might be limiting him, lol. He's no Alex, but I'm quite sure if I took the time to train him, he could learn almost as much. He has a fairly extensive vocabulary and picks new things up each day. He is also quite adept at making all sorts of different sounds, and loves to answer the phone when it rings. He is also now in the habit of calling my name when I'm in another room. That's right...he calls for me! I find it quite adorable, but he is relentless in his calls, lol. He has also started this very bad habit of letting himself out of his cage whenever he feels like it. He's in his own room with our third addition so I'm not too overly concerned about him being out, but I am considering a lock for his cage soon..



The third addition is Sammie, a Lesser Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. Yes, I LOVE 'toos! He is 1 year and 2 months old now. Unfortunately Sammie wasn't treated very well by his breeder as I had suspected from day 1 as I loathed these people from the beginning. I had this idea that I would "rescue" him from them, and all was well at first. As far as I know all they do is feed the babies and throw them back into undersized cages with inappropriate cagemates. I was never allowed to see where he was being kept. As I found out the day I came to pick him up, his entire tail and all of his flight feathers were pulled out by his cagemate, a BARE EYE!!! Not a good idea to keep these two together. The cowardly owner sat upstairs and refused to come down and talk to me and left me to the part time person downstairs. I left completely infuriated and in a hurry to take him to his vet appointment only 45 minutes later. After about a year, Sammie suddenly became frightened of my boyfriend and I. We went through everything we could think of to figure out what we did wrong. He had no problems with my mother touching him, and after talking with many people, I decided that he had suppressed all of the bad experiences he may have had at the breeders and now they had come about finally. Only Alex (boyfriend) and I had ever gone to visit him, so these would seem to make perfect sense would it not? I figured, if humans can do this, suppress things from their childhood that come about in adulthood then why couldn't birds do the same thing? They are of course highly intelligent beings. After 5 months of working with him we've decided to adopt him into a new family. I do feel as if I've given up on him, but he doesn't trust me, and I really don't think he ever truly will. On top of that I'm gone 9 hours a day and some days I just don't have the time to work with him. Sitting down on the couch and watching TV with the fids is a whole different story. He still gets his out of cage time and has lots of fun with his buddy Kendi, but he doesn't get the physical attention I think he so rightly deserves and requires.



First impressions I'm sure make me look like a bad parront, but in fact, I am doing what is best for Sammie. And, everyone deals with things differently. I do accept that Sammie will never allow me to touch him, but I can't handle it, it's difficult and heartbreaking!



I will post more at a later date, I'm off to update my OLD website.



Sarah