Since last week at work was so serious and gory, I decided to go the fun route this week. The best and most rewarding part of working at an animal hospital is (obviously) the experience I get with the animals themselves. What’s more is that some of the animals have more personality than some people that I know. Although I’ve encountered many different animals with personality, this week I dealt with one that I never imagined could be real.

Professor Flitwick is an Amazonian bird that boards at HAH fairly frequently. He’s a little baby! He is six years old, and will live to be about fifty. His owners went on vacation and left him with us this past week. Similar to many other clients, Professor’s owners brought in quite a large bag of personal items for him, including food, bedding, and various toys. This alone was interesting to me because I honestly don’t know much about birds in general. Having Professor Flitwick with us all week allowed me to learn his purpose in life. For example, Professor was extremely messy all week. He left bird droppings everywhere, spilled all of his food throughout his cage and on the floor, and was not a neat animal in general. When I made this comment to one of the doctors at HAH, she asked me if I knew his purpose for being so messy. It may be fairly obvious to other people, but I truly had no clue. I had never really given it much though. The doctor then explained that birds are the animals that spread fruit, vegetables, seeds, and much more, around so plants are able to grow. Looking back on that conversation with the doctor, I feel slightly like an idiot. It seems like common sense, right??

Anyway, another interesting thing about Professor Flitwick was his diet. His owners asked that we feed him a few pieces of fruit, a half of a pancake, and various seeds and nuts, all twice a day. That seemed like quite a bit of food for such a small bird. Little did I know, Professor stayed hungry. He snatched a pancake right out of my hand! Lesson learned: birds can be a little bossy. Not only was Professor bossy, but he was also very defiant. He had been taught that when someone puts their finger in front of his feet and says, “Step up,” he is supposed to step up on their finger. He decided to bite at my finger instead when I tried to get him to step up. How rude!

The best item that Professor’s owners brought in with him was his list of phrases. Professor Flitwick’s owners told us that Professor is very chatty, and he says everything on the list of phrases. I couldn’t believe he would say things like, “I love you, baby,” “Ooh la la,” “Hi, Professor,” “Are you ready?” “Hi, buddy,” “You’re my hero,” “Lift off,” “Yeah, boy,” and even fake burp. I was completely incorrect. Professor Flitwick is a full-time chatter box, and he repeats anything that is said to him frequently enough. For example, I was playing with one of the cats at HAH and kept saying, “Kitty, kitty,” and by the end of the day, Professor was saying the same thing. Obviously, I couldn’t bear to miss any of this, and I couldn’t wait to share it on my blog. So I took my phone, set it up near Professor’s cage, and just let it record him. The following clips are just a few pieces of the thirty minute video I took of him talking to himself. It’s hilarious!

This was definitely an experience I won’t ever be able to forget. I was able to have fun with a type of bird I didn’t know existed, and learn all about him and his lifestyle at the same time. It was amazing!