Aspergillosis is a rather nasty
infection this was actually while we were still at northwestern
and
I had to take him to the veterinarians and their testing him
basically they're telling me he has to stay here
we can't do this on an outpatient basis we have to have him here all the time
well he's never been away from
the laboratory all the students and myself
putting him in this little tiny hospital cage and I'm walking out the door
and again we have this I'm sorry which had been before
and also he used to say I want to go back where he was
you know on the back of a chair he would say wanna go back meaning take me back to the cage
so here I am walking out the door and this pathetic little voice and I'm sorry come here want to
go back
so I'm trying to explain no no I'll be in tomorrow just like every day I tell you I'll see you
tomorrow
I will be back
it was it was really difficult
did he understand that do you think
it's hard to say
initially I don't think he believed it but when I started coming back
okay every day and would be no it was it was a nightmare I was actually in the process
of moving the lab
so I would get up in the morning go into northwestern teach my class
then get into the car drive roughly an hour to where the Vet practiced stay with him until
you know the edge of rush hour so I could beat rush hour traffic back to Northwestern
then spend the evenings packing up the lab 0:01:29.049,0:01:31.600 preparing for courses
and writing the papers and things
so once he got
into the routine that I was coming back every day
then I think it was much easier initially
there was no trust
It's like a parent leaving a child or
any pet owner having to leave their pet at the vet which I still refuse do
can't somehow do that but in any event
tell the story a delightful story in the book I had to real laugh
a about greys tending to
speak the like their owners
the kick your blank story
that was my friend and it was not alex
charlie parker
and
sounds exactly like Michael and exactly I was actually there in their
house and Debbie has
charlie on her shoulder and she picks up the phone and says hello and the bird says hello
no no no you don't you don't have me and Michael on the phone you have me and Charlie on the phone
the person on the other end of the phone thought it was Michael
the story in the book is there is some really obnoxious
agent you know wanting to sell them some insurance whatever
trying very nicely to just get them off the phone
and at some point the bird kicks in with this
kind of expletive deleted type thing about you know
just get off the phone and it's quite
embarrassing had it been somebody they wanted to talk to at this point
it's really quite pleasant the bird
did the dirty work for them
so that's typical of an African gray they will develop
a voice that mimics they're owner we
had one incident at northwestern where
I'm coming back after lunch and I opened the door and there is some guy in the lab
looking at me
what's going on he said well I knocked on the door and somebody told me to come here
so I did and Alex was separated from
the thing there was a little curtain in front of his place so that
when people would come in and out
they wouldn't directly
interrupt him there was a little entryway
so this man is standing in front of the entryway I said you know
and then somebody asked me what my problem was and I said that I'd come here to fix
the pipe that was was you know leaking
and and I didn't see anybody then you walked in and of course it was Alex
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