She always makes me smile...

My pet bird's name is Yoda. She is a Goffins Cockatoo and about eleven years old. I've had her two years now. She belonged to a dear friend's ex-husband. My friend brought me to his house to see her kids, and while I was there I saw Yoda in a cage in the corner of the family room.

Being a lifelong bird lover, I went over and started talking with Yoda, she sat perched close to me, listening intently, then put her head against the bars, inviting me to pet her. My heart melted on the spot and I was smitten. My friend said, "Don't look at her, she's ugly." And I suppose Yoda WAS ugly, for she'd bit off almost all her feathers and her grey skin revealed her boney little body, quite the pathetic sight. But I didn't care. I saw her sweet, bright little spirit which was anything but ugly to me.

It turned out that my friend's ex really didn't have as much time for Yoda anymore, with work , a new house, and a new girlfriend and children to raise. I told my friend... "If he ever considers parting with her, I'd love to take her." She mentioned it to him, he thought about it and wanted to meet me to see if Yoda liked me OUT of the cage. The rest is history.

Yoda came to live with me and has been a source of constant delight ever since. She slowly stopped biting at her chest feathers. In this photo you can see the feathers starting to grow in again!

She is full of personality, flirts with any men who come around like a little hussy, says "hello" when the phone rings and "good bye" when she sees us go for our car keys. She loves to dance and listen to music and charms everyone who comes over. She is almost always out of the cage, since I work from home.

She still bites off her long feathers, but is allowing most of the short ones to grow. She usually looks a little bit ratty, but hey, when I'm around the house, braless and hair up in a knot, I don't exactly look put together myself! When Yoda sees me go for my belly dancing scarf, with the dangling beads and coins that jingle, she gets excited. She always dances along. She loves nothing more than to sit on my arm or shoulder as I putter around the kitchen, or on my knee as I sit at the computer. She's quite willing to be handled and "preened". I surely don't do the job as good as another parrot would, but she seems to like it.


Clearly, to me, Yoda was well loved by her other family and gently handled, because she loves people so much. I really appreciate how hard it had to be to give her up, but am so glad she's part of my daily life.

My friend really did Yoda AND me a huge favor when she brought us together... with Yoda I play, laugh, sing, dance, giggle, squawk and get to be like a child again, every day. It's great.

Now you've met my little Yoyo...