Chico's Treasure Trove!

Chico our Orange-Winged Amazon is a mischievous and playful companion. She often wonders about our lounge finding items that she decides are hers!

Usually this will include toys or treats left purposely for her attention. We did not realise however, that she had her attention focused on items which were not usual for a parrot to play with!

We had noticed, over a short time that our sons were finding items belonging to them gradually disappearing. They would often leave money on our coffee table and had often complained that there was some missing. As parents of teenagers you get used to the complaints and stories of "I was sure I left a £20.00 note on the table", we just thought they were trying to trick us into giving them extra funds and took little notice.

We started to get suspicious however, when this became a regular occurrence. We knew they would not try this trick that frequently. Still, we did not have any idea as to what was happening.

That was until one day we popped into the kitchen to make coffee, and being absent minded forgot to take the cups with us, so we went back into the lounge only to find Chico rushing off with something in her beak. We dashed over fearing she might have something that could harm her and discovered her huddled on the back of our sofa with a Gas bill we had received in the post that morning.

We took it from her and told her she couldn't have this, we needed it to pay the gas bill. She clung onto the bill with all the strength she could muster and tried to push it behind a large detachable cushion on the sofa.

We finally managed to retrieve the bill, but Chico would not move from the sofa, her behaviour was most strange, almost protective! What on earth was she up to, we had not seen her like this before. She stood there as stubborn as a mule.

After about an hour we managed to distract her with a treat and she moved back onto the play gym, allowing us the chance to remove the cushion from the sofa. We couldn't believe our eyes! There must have been over £90.00 stuffed behind this cushion, along with various letters and our youngest son's school report which we had been missing for a considerable time.

We had assumed his report was so bad that he threw it away and claimed it had disappeared just to hide this fact, unfortunately we had already grounded him at the time and realised he was telling the truth!

Chico had often stood on the sofa when we would read various parrot magazines and books, chatting as to what parrots were for sale or articles about them. She was very attentive. Chico is also keen to have a friend, unfortunately our other parrots are not that interested.

We have come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, she is intelligent enough to know that if she took enough money and hid it behind the cushion she would eventually have saved enough to buy her very own friend!