Peanut

It's hard to know what to write about this, but it's so strong an experience that I need to share something with you. At the moment I have an African Grey on my right shoulder. Peanut has been staying with us for the last few weeks, and we've written about him in our Parakeet Journal. After the first few days he and I had some kind of breakthrough, and Peanut has decided that he loves me.

For me and for any Grey this is a significant breakthrough. I don't know enough to understand all of the implications and ramifications, but I can tell you about my experience with it. Peanut is standing on my shoulder, and he's making little breathing/squeaking sounds. I can tell that his wings are out and drooping, and I can feel him shiver and quiver: those vibrations transmit down his legs. He shuffles back and forth just a little, and his claws dig into my neck when he gets closer than the collar of my tee-shirt. I can hear that he is chewing on a little bit of food that he has coughed up. I guess he feeds it to himself, since he can't feed it to me (my ear isn't interested, I guess) and I don't seem to be feeding him.

It's a powerful experience. I wish I knew better how to show the appropriate love in return. The best I can do is stop every sentence or two to scratch his head. But Peanut is so serious about this that he doesn't even accept scritches for very long.