Ollie entered our lives in early 2002 and became a much-loved member of our family. Although we had owned smaller birds previously, we had never shared our lives with a larger parrot and had a lot to learn.
Ollie showed us a side to birds which we never knew existed; he was highly intelligent and curious, he was friendly, talkative and loved to be the centre of attention. Above all, he was hugely affectionate and loved nothing more than to cuddle up under your chin whilst you whispered to him, scratched his neck and stroked his soft feathers.
Despite his small size, Ollie was king of the castle; the cats knew he had right-of-way when waddling around the house and he had us all wrapped around his little finger (claw?). He spent almost every evening sitting inside on his perch whilst we prepared and ate dinner (he was well fed!) and happily perched on a shoulder whilst we watched TV or sat on the computer. During the winter we had a perch for him in the bathroom (too cold to sleep outside) and when he was ready for bed he would toddle down the hall and climb up his perch without any prompting.
As a young bird (before he came to live with us) Ollie had broken his wing and it was left permanently deformed. Due to this he couldn't lift off the ground to fly, so we allowed him to walk around the garden when we were outside with him. He loved this immensely and happily spent hours digging in the dirt, weeding the grass and chasing any cat within a 5 metre radius (the latter being his favourite part!). Occasionally, he would also come along for walks (he had a harness for any ventures beyond our yard) and car rides -it was always funny to see the look on the cashier's face as we stopped at the Macdonalds drive-thru...priceless!
Ollie was quite proficient at talking, and constantly building on his repertoire (he had started 'woofing' like a dog, which was also pretty hilarious). His party trick was to dance up and down whilst singing 'dance cocky, dance cocky, dance, dance'...that always drew a laugh and generally got him a cashew nut, which I think was his ulterior motive!
Ollie was a very big part of our lives and now that he is gone there is a large empty hole left behind; everything we do around the house reminds us of him and to look outside onto the patio and not see him there leaves tears in our eyes. He gave us so much and for that we are so very thankful. We love you Ollie and will never, ever forget you xxx
