15 Jul 2003 @ 06:00, by Lydia Teo
Well I guess it must be the time for sharing animal stories. After reading jmarc's "wildlife encounter" it brought to mind an experience I had on Sunday.
It was a beautiful crisp, sunny winter's Sunday afternoon and I wanted to go out to my property to check the siting of the house. My kids went along with me and it wasn't too long before we drove through the gate. The kids and dog ran down to the river at the bottom of the hill while I stood looking at the lay of the land. I went to the back of my car and pulled out the house plans and closing the back door turned around to walk in front of the car. As there are quite a few cow patties around and I wasn't wanting to step in one I looked down to see where to place my feet. Standing by my left foot was a sulphur crested cockatoo. I stood still and spoke to it. It came closer to my foot and lifted its left foot up in the air and twisted its'claws into a fist and just kept moving it side to side while it tilted its head to the side and looked directly up at me. I thought, poor thing it must have a sore or crippled foot and having a similar problem myself I was really empathising with it. Then it opened its claws up and made a fist with the right foot. Oh I thought, it's actually not crippled it can just like that undo the crippled effect. Mmmm, is it trying to tell me something? By this time it was standing between my feet looking at them, from one to the other. Then to top it all off, without any fear it stroked my right foot three times with its foot, while it kept looking up at me. Wow, I kept talking to it, and told it that I was going to look at where the house was going to be placed and carefully moved off. Very casually the cockatoo wandered around and under the car before it wandered off further away pulling out grubs out of the ground and just casually grazing.
It was still grazing when the kids and dog returned. Luckily the dog didn't notice the bird and hopped back into the car and we drove off. The kids thought that the bird was welcoming us to our new home~space or telling us that this is where the end of the rainbow is. It probably was, and more. I think that I have a new adopted friend who will be visiting us in our new home.
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