Preface
This is a weekly journal of Victor's progress during a three month time frame. Most people find this very difficult to believe so I will try and back up everything I say with a recording of Victor. I am currently looking for a good writer, publisher or producer who would like to produce an audio book about Victor. Please let me know if you are interested.
Victor had been part of our family for more than three years. During that time he had developed a remarkable vocabulary. He started talking when he was less than six months old and he learned new words and phrases every day. After I started recording him and analyzing what he said, I realized he was talking in context. I wanted to prove to the world once and for all that parrots could talk in context. I began posting his recordings on his website in 1999. In november of 2000, I started this journal. The journal below began as an almost live update of Victor's progress as he rapidly learned how to converse and talk in context.
A Lonely Budgie
11 November, 2000
It seemed the more I recorded Victor and analyzed what he was saying the more I realized he was communicating with me. One day it seemed like he was complaining about being sad and lonely. He was staying in his cage more than usual, and was not as active either. This change happened when he started watching children's programs while he was home by himself. After the first week of watching, he informed me that he had seen some talking budgies on TV. He wanted to know why his toy budgie, Fuzzy couldn't talk. I think he saw a puppet show on kids TV and realized then that there was something missing in his life . Fuzzy had been with him for over two years and during that time Victor adopted her as his mate. He spent countless hours talking to her and giving her his affection. It almost seemed that he believed she was really alive. I would often hear him whispering to her or telling her all kinds of things. Fuzzy always had to be within his sight or Victor would get upset and start calling for her. He truly loved her, even though she was only a toy bird, made of plastic. (note: other research has proved birds can get very attached to inanimate objects)
Several times I heard him going into a long spiel with her about what was happening around him in the house. Perhaps he started to pick this up from me. Many times he would sit on my shoulder as I walked about in the house and I would tell him exactly what I was doing, as I did it. For example, if I went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, I would describe to him all my actions in making the tea. He was extremely interested and listened carefully to every word I said.
But since he started watching TV, he was spending less time with Fuzzy and didn't seem as happy as he usually was. Both my wife and I realized there was something wrong and discussed getting him a real friend or even a mate. At first I did not think it was a good idea because I heard "if you have more than one budgie, they will not talk as much." We thought about it for a week and decided we could not see Victor sad any more. Finally we went to a pet store and brought him home a mate. We picked one that was kept with only four other budgies. This would lessen the chance of it bringing back any sickness to Victor. We hoped we had made the right choice and picked one that was very active and alert with wide-open eyes. It seemed to notice us more then the others budgies in the cage. It was a fancy young white budgie, with gray and blue markings on its head and back, and blue on its chest. At its current age it was too young to determine its sex, but we hoped it was a female.
In one of the audio recordings below you will hear Victor reminding me of when I told him I would get him a real budgie someday. In the other two you will hear how close Victor was to Fuzzy and how he began to use context. These recordings are when he first began to talk in context. Later on in his story, you will be able to hear his amazing tranformation of talking only a few words in context to telling an entire story and even translating for his from bird talk to English.
