Sweet Potatoes

When Maya was eight weeks old, we bought her from a woman who raises parrots on her farm. We carried her to the truck in a Rubbermaid container and tried to decide on names. We had originally wanted a Green wing macaw but were unable to purchase one and decided on an African Grey at the last minute. We watched her and an Amazon walk around in the bottom of a small plastic pool, their home until owners like us came to give them new homes. The grey was chosen because she seemed friendlier than the Amazon.

We took turns feeding her and Bryan built a perch for her to stand on while she lived in her Rubbermaid container until she was ready for a cage.

Maya is a very good talker and she loves the entire family. She adores Bryan the most and lets him play and handle her with complete trust. Every night, before she goes to bed, she expects Bryan to take her from her cage and carry her down the hall into our bedroom where she then sits on his shoulder. She talks softly to him and pecks his cheek or the corner of his lips to give him kisses. She whispers, “I love” for some reason she doesn’t say the you part of I love you. She loves for him to grab hold of her feet and turn her upside down and tickle her tummy.

Sweet potatoes are by far Maya’s favorite vegetable. She gobbles them up from whom ever feds them to her. She’ll eat from your hand or from a spoon. She knows what sweet potatoes look or smell like because she gets so excited when she sees them being served at the dinner table. Once, when Bryan forgot to feed her some, she became upset at watching him eat the very last bite of the sweet potatoes. She screeched at him disapprovingly and at his realization, he apologies and went to the kitchen to get some more. While he was gone, he heard a crash and quickly ran into the den where his dinner was, only to see Maya stomping on the table checking out all of the dishes, looking for her sweet potatoes.