The Curious Monster

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If you haven’t met him before…meet Gizmo… Due to current world circumstances…this is my office companion.

He has a huge cage for a bird his size and, unfortunately for me, he doesn’t like it when I am home but out of visual range. Those conditions generally lead to much yelling and screaming.

I do not like loud noises.

Yes, I know I have a parrot, there is a disconnect there.

I do realize that fact.

I have realized that fact for close to 30 years now.

But he was a rescue and, under normal circumstances I am at work all day and he has the house to himself to sleep and destroy and eat and poop and fling water everywhere when he feels so inclined.

But now I am working from home. And the cage normally resides around a corner. But that doesn’t sit well with him; if he can’t see me he lets me know, in no uncertain terms, that he does not like the situation, so we have found a compromise.

I wheel his massive cage into the dining room so that he is just a few feet from me all day.

From time to time he randomly throw a pine cone, or some other random toy, off the top of the cage to see if I will go retrieve it (spoiler, I always do). When not sleeping, eating, or yelling, he plays destructo-bird and rips whatever cardboard box I have put on top of his cage for distraction purposes.

He still belts a yell out unexpectedly from time to time, perhaps just to remind me that he is there, perhaps because he takes some sick pleasure out of the knowledge that I like a quiet world around me when I work, particularly if Kirk is working at home upstairs…any noise from behind that closed door upstairs sends Gizmo into a fit…”The monster is upstairs!!!!” It’s sort of the equivalent to having a yappy dog that gets set off every time there is a knock at the door…..except more frequently…and a whole lot louder.

I was on a conference call the other week and had my microphone open. Gizmo gave a friendly whistle and, not knowing if that was all that was coming, I muted my mic. Someone on the other end of the call unthinkingly whistled back. Gizmo went wild for about ten minutes. Whistling louder and louder and more and more frantically.

I know I heard someone!!!! There’s someone out there talking to me but I can’t see them!!!

WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY?!?!?!?!

HELLO???????

Yes, that was fun.

I apologize a lot for him.

And then there are sunny days, where he cuddles up to the corner of the cage while it’s in full sunlight, and he basks in the warmth. He’s a bit of a mess again…another moult, and he just grew all his neck feathers back but now he’s all uncomfortable pin feathers again. That’s why he looks a bit ratty.

Yeah…he’s horrible, but he can be kinda cute…..sometimes….on occasion….