Tuesday, January 17, 2006

SQUAWK! You're Busted!

This from MSNBC this morning:
LONDON - Chris Taylor, a 30-year-old British computer programmer, grew suspicious of his live-in girlfriend when his pet parrot began to imitate her saying, “I love you, Gary.”

Ziggy, an 8-year-old African gray parrot, would also make kissing noises whenever the name Gary was mentioned on TV and would mimic Collins saying, “Hiya, Gary,” every time she answered her mobile phone.
Outed by a gray! My favorite gray parrot story was sent to me by should-have-been-a-Supreme-if-Bush-had-any-sense Judge Alex Kozinski and told the tale of a gray parrot who spoke the name of his owner's murderer, along with the words, "Please don't kill me!" The legal problem was that a gray parrot could not be introduced in court as a "witness," since it couldn't be sworn in or properly cross-examined or as "evidence," since the actual evidence was not the parrot, but what the parrot said. Eventually, the case against the murderer was proven without the parrot's testimony.

I'm not sure, but I think that my gray, Ripley, could be sworn in on cashew nuts. He likes lots of different kinds of food, but he believes in cashew nuts. The sad part of the MSNBC story is that the guy got rid of his parrot because he couldn't stand to hear the bird, Ziggy, speak in his now ex-girlfriend's voice:
She [the girlfriend] added: “I’m surprised to hear he’s got rid of that bloody bird; he spent more time talking to it than he did to me. I couldn’t stand Ziggy, and it looks now the feeling was mutual.”
That sucks. Hey, Ziggy delivered the mail! He deserves a sack of cashews, not exile. Having been around Ripley for more than a decade, I wouldn't rule out the idea that Ziggy knew exactly what he was doing...getting rid of someone he didn't like so he could spend more time with his buddy. I hope he ends up in a home that appreciates him!

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