Friday, March 5, 2010

Selling the bird



We have made the decision to sell our blue fronted amazon parrot. We bought him last July, and he's never really adjusted well to living here. People complain about parrots being noisy. I think that the inverse is true in our case- I think WE'RE too noisy for him! We started out with the cage out in our front room, and he was obviously stressed out and overwhelmed. Didn't really like to have anyone approach him. We re-arranged things and put his cage back in M's room, and put his portable perch out in the front room. That way, he could come out and visit, but his cage was in a quieter place.

That helped, but he has still seemed overwhelmed by the sheer chaos that reigns in our home. To make matters worse, he has decided he hates K. He'll actively try to attack her if she gets too close. She can't go into M's room unless the bird is actually closed up in his cage. Rudy's favorite is M, with me being a close second.

The other deciding factor is space. His cage and perch take up a lot of space, and I am constantly whining about lack of space in this house. Since we have decided to stay here until we've paid off all debt and can afford THE HOUSE, I am trying to minimize possessions.

So, given his feelings about living here, his hate for K, and space, we've decided to let him go.

I've put an ad on KSL for him. So far, no irate phone calls from his previous owner (I tried to list him last year, and the last owner called and yelled at me). No scammers, either! Yay!

Last night, I got a very odd phone call. I missed the first call, and got an almost unintelligible voice mail. Called the guy back, and he offered me half the asking price. Umm, no. I pretty much told him I was completely inflexible on price. He asked if I could drive the bird to Salt Lake. I said that I'd consider it with a full price offer. He said he didn't have the money, but he'd call back if he could gather it.

5 minutes later, I get another call from him. It's now 9:45pm. He tells me that he's got the money, and can I leave now to take the bird down there? NO!!!!!! I said that I'm not going to Salt Lake til Saturday. He said that if the bird was still available Sat, then to call him, and he'd give me his address.

There's two other people who have said they want the bird, and are willing to 1- pay full price and 2- come to pick the bird up from my house.

There was one other college student who called who had me talked into buying just the bird and perch, and then I'd have to sell the cage separately. Given the other interest and the hassle involved, I think I'm going to call him back and tell him to make another offer.

I'm a little sad, particularly when I watch cool youtube videos of parrots who seem more personable and do tons of cool tricks. Then again, I suspect if it was just Rudy and I living here, he'd be a different bird.

1 comment:

Kristen said...

I say don't let strangers come to your house to get the bird. Meet them somewhere.