Names Part 2

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The birds call us by different names. They know our given names, but have picked up on other names for us also. For example they call my husband Mark or Papa. I have a few more names than that – such as Cath, Ma, Baby girl, Big girl, and so on. Emelio will also call me Hon, Honey Cath, and he may even refer to me (to the other birds) as Your Mother. All of these names they heard at one time or another from us.
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Alex chooses to call me Pat. He does know my name, and will use it if all else fails, but I have learned to answer to a name that isn’t mine (or maybe I should say wasn’t mine.) I naturally assumed that Pat was the name of his first owner, but I was wrong. I asked KC – the woman who rehabilitated Alex – if that was the case. She said that her own mother’s name was Pat and Alex had taken a liking to her.
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Alex doesn’t just call for me by saying the name Pat, he also changes the way he says it. It can be loud and demanding, or inquiring, or sweet – as in Oh, Paaattt. Sometimes he repeats the name quickly in a monotone – Pat Pat Pat. He will say it every way he can think of until he gets a response. If I don’t answer him he calls “Cathy” as a last resort.
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My sister was parked in our driveway one day waiting for us to come home. The windows were open and she could hear Alex calling for Pat. After getting no response at all, he began almost to sound as if he had been crying and the calls became pathetic. Alex is the only bird that does this kind of thing.
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I already wrote about how emotional he sounded when he discovered the swing. He did it another time when we took him for a nail trim. Before Linda closed her shop she gave us lessons on how to trim the birds. We now do all the birds except Alex; he’s just too intimidating. Linda had recommended Eric and we took Alex there a couple of times. After getting his wings and nails trimmed, Alex went to the back of his carrier and sounded like he was sobbing and he kept saying “Oh, God. . . Oh, God” in this mournful voice. It was awful! We had to give up going to Eric’s because it was such a long ride and Alex started banging his head against the bars of his carrier while in the car. I couldn’t stand the sight of his little face bleeding like that, so we take him to the vet now, which is about 10 minutes away.
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Cathy