Echoes

Pukka and I have friends who live with an African Grey. At times he chose to mimic some pretty unfortunate noises, like the time the batteries in the smoke detector got low while he was home alone for the day. After that, any time he thought he needed a tad more attention than he was currently getting, he'd start in with that piercing chirp.

Awhile back, the same household became home to a kitten, Iggy. There was some concern about the interaction between feline and bird, but they generally did fine. Last I saw them, the parrot would fly into the room, land on the floor and immediately call out, "Iggy, no!"

Similar things are going on these days in PJ's house. She and her husband have a dog named Gibson. Gibson is large, white, and generally believed to be not very bright. When she was pregnant, PJ was worried what he might think of the baby. In general, he seems to adore her. He's very protective and gets rather agitated when she cries. Given the opportunity, he'd lick her to pieces.

But any time he starts licking the baby, PJ immediately cuts him short with, "Gibson, that's enough!" When I was there, she told me she doesn't really care if he licks her once or twice, but she figures it takes at least three licks before her command penetrates his pea brain.

"I'm afraid," she confessed to me, "that Abigail's first sentence is going to be, 'Giboson, that's enough!' She certainly hears it more than anything else."

Sounds to me like Gibson and Iggy should form a tag team.