Early Days

I can't say I was terribly clever or original when coming up with Halle's name. Cat Woman was a popular film right about then, and I liked Halle Berry. Also, I was working on singing Handel's Messiah, and the Hallelujah Chorus was playing at my house night and day. It's a nice, loud song, and Halle really liked to scream along to it. She's got more notes in her repertoire than say, Scooby, but not many. Halle's voice is not musical, but she can say a few words. 'Macaw pretty bird!' is a much loved phrase, as is 'Hello!' You'd be amazed at how many inflections the word Hello can have, how many meanings it can convey. While with Vito, Halle would stand on top of her cage and lean with her whole body toward him on the other side of the room, and Vito would say, 'Come on!' trying to encourage her to fly over to him. He'd say it loudly and with feeling, but she never felt comfortable flying that distance. Could be the limited number of wing feathers. This went on for the whole month or two that she lived there, and what she took from the experience was the ability to say, 'Come on!' Sadly, she's stopped adding much to her vocabulary, something that tends to happen to some birds after a certain age. I tried to get her to say,'I can talk; can you fly?' What she responds is,'Caw, caw, caw.' And that's it.

When she moved in, she and I had a difference of opinion about where droppings should go. She'd sit on my shoulder, and after awhile, I'd feel a warm spot on the back of my shirt. The couch was a favorite spot to perch, unfortunately. Also, if she were scared, she'd unload wherever she was. I was not amused. So whenever she'd go in the right place, on the newspaper surrounding her cage or in the cage itself, I'd say, 'You're a good bird!' She took notice, and within two months she was paper trained. Even better, when I'd give her her nightly treat of a few pistachios, she'd tell me that I was a good bird. The phrase is clearly a reward for good behavior. I make sure I always have a good supply of pistachios, unsalted of course.