What's that on my shoulder? This is Chiquita, a 36 year old female Magna Double Yellow Headed Amazon Parrot which we adopted in 1998. Normally he lives in a cage the size of a Honda Civic. However, she roams about freely on the outside of his cage, and from time to time gets taken for a ride on someone's shoulder, which she enjoys immensely (after some more reading my wife discovered why one-eyed pirates are one-eyed, thus no more shoulder rides with out eye protection). She let our family, the dog and cat know soon after his arrival as to who was on the top of the pecking order-him! She loves whistling at girls sunbathing on their boats as they pass by outside, and has greeted numerous fishermen. We only hope that she doesn't pick up any sailor vocabulary when he is outside conversing with passing boats!

If you phone and I happen to have her in the office, then you can expect some competition from the loudest bird in the McIntosh flock!

PS Yes she has beautiful feathers.

In 2007 we gave Chiquita to the World Parrot Refuge where she joined a flock of 4 other Amazon parrots. We feel she is thrilled with the change since she joins birds of her age and enters a caged area measured in 1000s of square feet.

To the left, and below are pictures from the summer of 1999 of our new dog L'Amie vom Steffen Haus. L'Amie was born in February of 1999. Due to my summer sabbatical and the fact that we are now home schooling, she has not been separated from us for any length of time. This means of course she has bonded very well with all family members, even the new Cat of the year 2000. We have begun extensive training with the Vancouver Island Sport Dog Club, as she is no longer a puppy. A picture of her mother can be found here, since she comes from a line of magnificent dogs we can trace her genetic history back nearly 100 years.

Sadly we have to report that L'Amie passed away in the Summer of 2007 due to Heart Failure. She was a great dog and we will miss her greatly.