The little things that make a difference

First off, it doesn't really matter to me whether or not my birds speak with human words.

However, when they have, in the past, used some of those words repeatedly and then stopped for the longest amount of time, you can't help wonder why..

When we lived in our old apartment, Joey would compete with the other guys, namely Petey, to be the first one to greet us. He would do so with a nice loud and clear "Hey Joey!". Now whether him or Petey with his equally loud and possibly slightly clearer "Hi Petey" would be first always changed.

Then we moved. And instead of having their cages in the living room and clearly hearing the door open and my immediate greeting, their cages got moved to the birdroom, behind another door (I keep the door closed during the day so the cat can roam the apartment). Joey subsequently stopped his cheerful greeting. He would mumble, but long ago were the days where he would utter "Hey Joey".

That is, until today.

I entered the birdroom giving them my usual post-work greeting and was very surprised when I got treated to "Hey Joey". I have to say that made my day. Absolutely estatic, I proceeded to sing him his two songs (our ritual) to which he mumbles along. I'm not sure if he realized how happy he made me though.

Here's hoping he continues. It doesn't need to be said everyday, but it's nice to hear every few weeks!