Whew! This is hard! Kelani was so endearing that it has been a struggle to even think of writing something. However, I do want to have her memorialized on your page, so here goes.

We decided to get an African Grey for my Christmas present and had been calling around trying to find where there was one available. We finally did locate a young Congo about 3 hours from home. We drove over to get her, and she immediately liked us enough to 'step up' on our fingers and was very well-behaved right from the start. The pet shop owner had raised her himself and had taught her things like not biting and stepping up and all she needed to know to be a good pet.

We spent a few days figuring out a name for her, Kele is Hawaiian for Jerry, and to make it female we added the 'lani' at the end to sound feminine.

She began talking right away, 'Whatcha doin', huh?' and laughing like us (me mostly) and a very deep voiced 'hello' as well as lots of other fun things. She was a great talker, and as usual for a grey, talked in the voices he heard say the phrases.

Kelani was mostly a really neat bird, but did tend to be awfully hard on he woodwork. She pretty much had run of the house and if our backs were turned she'd immediately head for the kitchen counter where she could pig out on grapes.

Another favorite thing was to climb the drapes... where she could then sit on the window sill and chew the woodwork! I quickly learned to tie up the curtains so she couldn't reach them to climb!

She traveled well, talking and whistling everywhere we went. She enjoyed meeting new people. She loved my husband best and every evening would go to him and climb up (he's reclining on the couch) and snuggle under his chin and beg for scritches. I claimed she liked him best because he had time to hold her and play with her while I worked.

When she crashed into that chair leg we were both just devastated. Losing her in our daily lives was a lot like losing a child. She was much loved

Fly strong and free Kelani until we shall meet again.

Ardy