Poppy, the Parakeet

I haven't written much about Poppy, the parakeet, on this blog.
What can I say? Her real name is Popcorn, we call her Poppy for short. She is beautiful and very quiet for a budgy.
When Linnea and I went to buy her a few years ago, she was taken out of the large cage in the pet shop where she sat with two other parakeets.
She cried out in agony, both she and her brother sitting next to her.
I have never heard such a scream from a little bird, and have not forgotten the feeling that I had that I should have bought both of them.
Poppy has not been a very joyful bird. We have had many over the years, fun-loving, intelligent, teasing little parakeets. They have played with us, eaten with the family, hopped on the computer, the piano, books, the armies on a Risk-game etc.
Poppy has been different. She seems a little sad and is not interested in playing with us.
But she does something funny. Parakeets are wonderful at learning words, even sentences. They can repeat whistling tunes and dances with many different moves. Ours have done these things.
Poppy mimics sounds. She is so clever at it, that Arnfinn and I at times have not been able to tell the difference.

One evening I heard Arnfinn touch-dialing the phone.
"Who on earth is he calling this time of night," I said to myself. It was quite late.
In the other room was Arnfinn going, "Who is Heidi calling this late?"
Then there was Poppy in her little cage making the sound exactly like someone was making a call.
We wondered who she was calling.

But the other morning she went a step further.
Arnfinn's alarm went off and with a narrow slit opening his eyes, he turned it off. But downstairs we heard the alarm continue. Not only did Poppy get the sound exactly right, she accelerated the speed just like Arnfinn's clock does.

A parakeets brain is tiny. How are they able to be so clever?

One parakeet we had, named Eddie (Edison), could tell by the dog's barking who came to the door.
He understood the happy bark of a dog when children return from school and from the cage in the living room yelled out, "Hello, hello, hello!"

Then there was the parakeet, Stanley, who played with a small rubber band in his mouth, flipping it up and down. All of a sudden, the rubber band spun like a lasso over his head and landed around his body, tying up his wings entirely. He was on the couch at the time, playing with Tiffany. He strode towards Tiffany and with pleading eyes asked her to remove the band, which she did.

I have painted many water colors of different birds. I love birds and they make great models.

Today a photo of Poppy, a water color of an American bald eagle, a morning rooster, a young charming rooster named Medelpadius, and a painting I have called "On y va!" = "Let's go!"