Employee Introduction~Sylvie

I adopted Sylvie, my African grey, from a wildlife shelter for unwanted parrots (by the way, that is my husband with that little beast) I volunteered there every Friday for three years-there are over 60 parrots given up by their owners for one reason or another. The volunteers would clean cages, feed creatures, and try to interact.

I say try to interact, because most of these parrots were traumatized in one way or the other and you had to know that interaction might mean getting bitten. Sylvie always would step up for me-she wasn't exactly loving, but she thought she would give me a try.For me it was hard to understand that someone had her as a pet for 40 years and gave her up because they moved out of state. I took her home (this is exactly why I don't go to animal shelters any more) !

So Sylvie had her foot in my door. She would sit on her upper perch where she could control who was allowed to stick their hands in her cage. Sylvie's undoing is that she is a food hound. She comes down to her food dishes because she adores eating. So she would step up for me, but I definitely know she considered me transport and mealtimes (chopped liver so to speak). The one who captured her heart is my husband, and he didn't have to do anything! They sit in his office and listen to the beach boys together. They are still listening to Christmas caroles. She doesn't care what they listen to as long as he scratches her head, holds her close and lets her chew paper on his desk.  She has adopted him-he was never a bird person, but Sylvie has made him feel successful-so he is kind of a bird person.!

She follows him by whistling, throwing kisses or when she is outside her cage, running to his office. Of course if he is not in his office-she will run there anyway and chew on anything wood. A very big personality for a small grey parrot.

So I am introducing Sylvie~ who has influenced me toward creating hand marbled feathers to represent the personality of the African Grey parrot~ so much spirit, so very loving (but very particular!) and extremely loyal. She also has mucho rhythm when it comes to the beach boys.