I do love you, but I just don't feel THAT WAY about you

Robin has been spending a lot of time with the parrot lately, and has been excited to find that Loren will accept a lot more handling than she used to. That's good for both of them, but it's a little awkward for me because the bird keeps making inappropriate overtures to Robin, who is oblivious to Loren's ulterior motives. (Look Mommy! She wants to sit on me!)

The same thing happened a year ago, when I was the only one interacting with her, so I assume it's kind of a seasonal thing. Of course this burning desire for...companionship...is nice, in that she is much more interested in being handled and petted, and makes the humans feel wanted and needed and all. Not to mention that she's less likely to bite the kids now that she wants them to pet her.

But I have to guess that it's not very fulfilling for the parrot. Who, by the way, could just as well be a "he" - when Yolanda first gave me the birds I looked them up on the Internet and was able to determine that they were Red Lored Amazon parrots. One of the things I learned about this species was that even an avian veterinarian can't determine the sex without genetic testing. So there you have it. I never knew whether we had a matched pair or a mixed set to begin with, and now that Rosita's gone I can't even watch their interactions to try and figure it out. We just called them both "she" because they both had girl names. (Hey, what if new parents had to just kind of guess the sex of their babies?)

Anyway, the girls have been enjoying Loren's crooning little songs and suave little dances. And her inclination to grasp Robin's arm with one foot, even if they don't understand why she almost never lifts the other foot to step all the way up. I guess we should be thankful that all her behaviors are relatively cute - I hear that if a bird is really in love, it'll pay you the ultimate compliment of throwing up on your shoulder. So there's that.