A hitching post for Hovis?
Hee! Hope you enjoy this photo taken this morning! Hovis can be quite photogenic at times:
This picture reminded me of the hitching posts for horses. Hovis is nearly 5 months old now and looking scraggly. She is molting, still getting rid of those baby feathers. Her bright red head feathers are just beginning to show but you have to look closely. Amazing how much more vivid they are than her juvenile ones.
Hovis continues to need training especially with her people skills. She attracts a great many people, some of whom she tolerates and others of whom she “snarls” at. We don’t let her get away with it and she is encouraged to let all who want to, stroke her back. (No beak for obvious reasons!) Once reminded to behave she is normally very good.
Apple cores are her latest favorite food as we have been eating apples daily on our trip. The seeds aren’t good for her but we take it away before she accesses them. At times you would think we had a chicken in the truck as she clucks like a hen when she gets excited. Give her a piece of rolled up cardboard and she enjoys destroying it, clucking away. Her beak is definitely getting stronger. Today, whilst Richard was in Walmart, I was waiting outside with Hovis. I got asked a totally new question: “Are you using her as a marketing tool?” The other question, which was totally logical, was why I had a parrot at Walmart. It’s not a normal occurrence that people expect to see when they are there as most folks leave their birds, if they have them, at home! Of course my answer regarding life on the road usually starts a long conversation. Neither Richard nor I mind this as Hovis truly blesses people’s days. We are asked frequently if they can take a picture.
Here’s to life on the road where “life is always an adVENTURE”!
Liz