Originally Posted by alaskayorkie (Post 3605344)

We've had Rosebud, our green-winged macaw, for 16 years. We were told she was 3 when we got her, so she will quite likely outlive us.

Rosebud is wonderful and a pain, sort of like the problem child you just can't stop loving. We we naive when we got her and didn't do the research. We didn't know she'd outlive us. We didn't know green wings are the loudest of macaws. We didn't know that she'd scare the crap out of just about all our friends, making finding a pet-sitter difficult. She's sweet to my wife, tolerates me, but will bite just about anybody else -- unless they're a bird person who understands you have to be fearless around them.

Our honeymoon stage lasted about 10 years. She became part of the family and she could do no wrong. But the more time went on, we realized we weren't the best home for her. We live in a smallish home, and her screeches echo through the whole house. I have no doubt my hearing has suffered from her squawking.

It killed us to even think about rehoming, but we tried once. We went through the bird club and found what looked like the perfect, young family. We dropped her off in tears and called weekly, then monthly for six months. Each time they assured us she was a delight and a good fit in their home. We dropped off a couple care packages in that time but refrained from visiting her to make sure we didn't upset her. That killed us too.

But after about 6 months, we got a freaking email from the husband of the woman who adopted her for the family. He said "Pick her up tomorrow or she's going back to the bird club." Evidently, the only one she bonded with was their 12-year-old son, and he let her run around the house unsupervised. The husband says she raced up and broke his wife's toe. That was the last straw for them.

We picked her up the next day, and the woman hid in her bedroom and told her 12-year-old son to tell us she wasn't home.

It was a rocky homecoming. You could tell she was traumatized and wasn't the same bird. It took months for her old personality to return.

My wife wanted to look into rehoming immediately, but I said no. It was too traumatic on her, and our first attempt failed miserably. I'd rather put up with her than to put her through that again. She's family.

We do occasionally think of rehoming. If we could find an experienced, stable, young macaw person who could give her a better life than we can, we'd do it. But it's sort of like trying to rehome an aggressive pit bull. Unless you have the perfect owner, it's bound to fail.

Here are a few pictures of our girl. She's smart as a whip and has quite the vocabulary. My favorites are "Here kitty, kitty" and "That feels good" (when we bring her in the shower. :) )