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| Name: |
Sunny
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Age: |
Three and a half years old
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| Gender: |
Female
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Kind: |
Catalina Macaw
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| Home: |
Springtown, Texas, USA
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Sunny
is a Catalina Macaw, and will be four this summer. She lives in
Springtown, Texas when she is home, but we travel for several months out
of the year to horse shows for our business so Sunny has been to eight
states so far. Besides being at least the smartest and most beautiful
macaw on the planet, Sunny is probably most special because of her story.
Sunny is sort of a rescue. We had a wonderful little quaker we had hand
raised but she was my husband's special bird and I wanted a bird of my
own, specifically an african grey. Just before Christmas in 2010 I checked
craigslist just as Sunny happened to be put up. She was looking for her
fourth home in her short two and a half years and had been living in a
backyard for a year. Her owners felt they were not able to give her the
home nor the attention she needed. The backyard was on a school bus stop
and Sunny developed a huge vocabulary talking to the kids. We have written
down nearly 200 words and phrases and missed many more. She is uncanny in
her use of language. She was a very unhappy macaw when we got her. I think
she thought we kidnapped her. The first thing she ever said to me, when I
was trying to console her on the ride home, was "SHUT UP!"
We had some rough weeks with a lunging biting growling macaw before she
accepted us. We had made a commitment to her and didn't want to see her go
through the trauma of another rehoming to we stuck with it. We now have
the companion of a lifetime. She has learned to love us but we think she
would still leave home for a kid.
She is our first macaw and had you asked me if I wanted one before Sunny
came along, I would have said absolutely not. We travel in a horse trailer
with living quarters in front and although it is a big fancy camper area,
space is still limited and we were already traveling with Lulu the quaker,
three cats and a Doberman. An African Grey, I thought, was just the right
size. I laughingly call Sunny my grey, all 33 brightly colored inches of
her. Her talking ability certainly rivals most greys. Sunny's favorite
activities include opening presents, getting new toys, going to garage
sales[toys] , first monday[toys], Home Depot[toy parts], Petsmart where
she window shops for toys and told the clerks "I'ma bird" and pretty much
anywhere else she is allowed. Did I mention toys?
Sunny keeps us in stitches all day with her sage comments and silly
questions. She is always up for a new adventure, particularly anywhere she
can entertain people, the more, the better. In the one picture, Sunny
going out birdwatching on Caddo Lake in Texas. I have pictures of Sunny
canoeing, shopping, riding in the truck, watching TV [her favorite is
Petkeeping with Mark Marrone] and dozens of other activities. She is a
very busy girl.
She now has her own Facebook page under
"Sunny the Macaw"
for all the friends she makes
traveling but it is a new page so few of her friends know about it yet.
Sunny is unusual in her love of adventure and meeting new people. There's
nothing shy about her.
Here is one story. My husband took her along running errands one day and
pulled through a McDonald's drive thru where he ordered ice tea at the
speaker. When he pulled up to the pay window Sunny waddled off her perch
between the seats, leaped on the steering wheel and leaning out the window
yelled "French Fries" at the startled cashier. It made the cashiers day
and Sunny did get her french fries!
Another time we were at a horse show when a very small girl came up with
her parents. "Look, Sweetheart. Do you know what that is?" they asked. She
looked intently for a moment and replied "Quack, quack." "No," they said,
"That is a tweet, tweet like we talked about. Remember?" She stared again
and said firmly "Quack, quack." They corrected her again and then Sunny
decided to end the argument. She leaned down to the little girl and in a
conspiratory tone said "Quack, quack." That little girl went away knowing
that Mom and Dad weren't always right, because she heard it from the
horse's or in this case parrot's mouth!
She is a hoot. She is sitting beside me as I type and just told me "That
Sunny, We love her." Modesty may not be her best feature!
View more images of Sunny!
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