Sam’s Story

I am a Macaw parrot. I am from Central/South America. My old master named me Sam. I am about ten years old. I am a beautiful girl. When human’s look at me, they always say: “OH! You are a beautiful bird!”

My old master didn’t look after me. I joined a new family. This family lived in Livermore, California. They have two birds. One bird is like me from Central/South America, but we are different kinds. His is bigger than me. A Macaw parrot’s life is different than a dog. Our life spam is about sixty years if we are not sick. The young boy bird’s name is Marley. His name sounds like a girl’s name. He is very naughty and friendly. His color is red, green and blue. My color is green, blue and yellow.

My new master likes him too much, so sometimes Marley is a not very good bird, but that is OK!

My new master taught him to say, “Nan-Nan, Ni-Hao! I love you. Nan-Nan” before my master’s new wife arrived from China. The other bird’s name is Gumby. Maybe it is older than me. Maybe it is a girl or a boy. My master doesn’t know, but he believes, it is a boy. It is a different type of bird than us. It is from Central America. It is an Amazon parrot. Its color is green and yellow. It is smaller than us. Our natures are different. My master always says: “Gumby is like a cat. It likes to look at everything, but never wants to do anything. Marley and I are like dogs. Marley likes to involve himself with humans. He likes to play with the dog. By the way, he makes too much trouble. I don’t want to make more trouble for myself. I just have lived here for a short time. Now I only look around. I talk and I try to teach Marley to make trouble, because my master always says, “Marley still is a baby. He is very young. It is OK!” I think, after long time, my master believes that I am better than Marley. I am a good and smart bird. I can talk more. I try to teach Marley and Gumby, but they don’t want to learn.

My master’s wife studies English from me. My pronunciation is better than hers, so she always says, “Sam is a better bird than Marley.” My master believes this is true. He looks after Marley. He teaches him, he spends painstaking time with him. So he always says: “Marley is very young. He is still a baby.”

This month, my family will move to a new city. This house is smaller than the old house. Our three cages will never fit in this small house. My master doesn’t want to separate us. Finally, he decided that Gumby needed to be the one to join a new family, because human likes him. It is easier to look after him than us. Human are afraid of our big and hard beak, because they don’t understand us. Sometimes we don’t trust them, so we make a little trouble. Now no family wants to look after me. Gumby will enjoy a new family. My master is not happy. Marley and I are still living with our family. We will move to the new house. We will live there together.

Sam as told to Irene