MR. MANNERS

As I wrote last time, Buster is the Commander in the house. He also picked up on appropriate manners.

He is not friendly to visitors, especially the cleaning ladies and their vacuum. My husband rescued him the last time the cleaning ladies were vacuuming around his cage because he was screaming in fear like a small child. When the cleaning ladies stepped out the front door to leave, Buster said "Thank you!". The boss cleaning lady came back in to collect her check and turned around to step out the door, Buster, again, said "Thank you!" The ladies laughed knowing Buster was glad to get rid of them. (Remember, last time I wrote about how Buster gets people to leave.)

Often when Buster gets his food, seeds or water he also says "Thank you!"

The other day when Buster asked, "Are you ready to watch TV?", and I replied, "Yes.", Buster said, "Thank you!"

His speech is always appropriate to the situation. He also adds the emotion he picked up at the time he learned it. We only taught him to say one thing, "Neener, neener, neener." hoping he would say this to our son but he hasn't so far. We carry on simply conversations with Buster often the instigator. Birds love to interact with each other and us so to not respond is cruel. Sometimes the conversation is the same one we've had many times with some variations but we respond anyway.