Now—–here’s a story.

Long John Silver entered on the scene at our home in 1983(?)……….or thereabouts…

Long John is an Umbrella Cockatoo.  We really don’t know how old he is.

 

Years ago our veterinarian estimated that he was in his forties.

Who knows…?

But when I got Long John, that was prior to the importation laws.  Now only domestically-raised parrots can be sold in the United States.

 

 

I can only agree with that.

 

 

 

At the time, I had done no research.     I didn’t know how badly the birds were treated, and how many died in the process………………………ah, homo sapiens……………sigh…………..

I had decided I wanted a red Macaw and a Cockatoo.

 

 

To that effect I purchased Doctor Elisa Doolittle (a Green-Winged Macaw) and Long John Silver from the same pet shop in Dunedin, Florida.

 

 

 

I recall that Long John came in with a large flight of Umbrella Cockatoos.  I would check on a regular basis.  The large cage kept having fewer and fewer parrots in it each week.

Long John was ultimately the last Cockatoo left.  And he was handicapped.

That was because he had a broken leg that had mended incorrectly and left him with a dramatic limp when he walked.  I don’t know if the break happened in the wild or was during the capturing process………….I’m thinking it was the latter……………sigh…

In fact, he preferred not to use both feet to walk………….he would use his beak and his good leg only.

Well, being that I’m involved in sports medicine………………you know where this story is going…………..

Long John came home.  No one else seemed to want a physically-challenged bird…………………..except for me.

 

The name, Long John Silver, was decided upon because of his coloring and his peg-leg-type limp………………at least he didn’t need an eye patch…………………………oh wait, that’s me…

 

 

He turned out to be this incredible, cuddly bird.

 

 

I would do therapy with him daily.  A lot of range-of-motion work and massage treatment.

Now he still has his exaggerated limp, but he doesn’t use his beak anymore, he uses both legs.

And here we are in 2018 and Long John’s still here.

I miss Dr. Doolittle a lot, she’s gone now.  But she wasn’t as kind as Long John…………………she put her beak through my hand several times……………..just like room-temperature butter.

Oh, and I also had to be treated for psittacosis that I got from her (prior to finding out that she came with the infectious disease from the wild)………………….well, you see, I was feeding her macadamia nuts in the shell (it was really fun watching her work on them and crack them open).

She would have a tendency to just enjoy cracking them open and dropping the nut……….well………they were macadamia nuts after all………..and I only would pick them out of the cleaner areas of the bottom of the cage………..and we all know macadamia nuts are tasty………..super tasty…

The doctors were really serious and lecturing…………..after they stopped laughing.

Dr. Doolittle and I were put on the same liquid oral medication.

…………….that was tasty too……………..

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So, to this day, Long John Silver is still amongst us.  I’ll will him to my children.

He still greets the morning and salutes the end of every day with outrageous & on-gong squawks…………….but hey, it’s Florida………………everyone has parrots.

Just about every neighborhood resounds with the same or similar noises at the beginning and end of the day.

I’m glad there’s no longer any importation of tropical birds allowed.

Too many wonderful creatures were lost or hurt in the process.

And there’s a very nice breeder of Macaws just up the road a ways in Live Oak, Florida……………………not that I’ve checked.