The King is rockin' the house

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Jacque Johnson |
Despite the bumpy road he’s been on, though, this guy is such a character you can’t help but fall in love with him the minute you meet him. "He has the biggest personality I’ve ever seen," explains Best Friends parrot manager Jacque Johnson. Boy, is she not kidding! Spend two minutes with King O and you might make the same assessment.
For one thing, he’s a perpetual chatter box. You walk in and are greeted almost instantly with, "Pretty, pretty bird!" or "Ohhhhhhhh!" or maybe he’ll even sing and dance for you. He has many favorite songs he likes to croon, such as Cecilia from Simon and Garfunkel (substituting the word Ophelia) or one of the Beatles songs, or maybe some Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. He loves to dance, he steps up for head scratches, he constantly bobs and weaves and grooves when his favorite music plays, and in all other ways likes to hog the spotlight. There’s no keeping this guy in the backstage crew, that’s for sure.
Some of this larger than life behavior comes wired with the original package, obviously, but it’s also the byproduct of how he was raised. King O grew up in an environment where he was the star of the show every minute of the day. Part of him still wants to be treated that same way. Leave the room, for example, and don’t expect him to be happy about it! After all, who walks out on a celebrity?
Lucky for King O, he’ll soon take up lodging in the main office up at birds where he’ll be surrounded by friends and visitors from dawn ‘til dusk. (All animals at the Sanctuary are separated temporarily, until tested, when they first arrive.) Someday he hopes to have a home again where he is adored all day long, but until then, he’ll have the next best thing: Love and attention from his caregivers and everybody else who walks through the building.
But yeah, truth be told, The King does look a bit like a vulture with a feather boa around his neck. Maybe someday he’ll decide to stop plucking out his feathers in this exact fashion, but until then he has definitely developed a look all his own. And really, no two superstars are supposed to look exactly alike, are they?
Welcome (and all hail) King O!
PS: The King made it to Monday's funny video on PeoplePets.com.
Why not sponsor this remarkable bird?
By David DicksonPhotos by Gary Kalpakoff