Meet the Store Pets: Cherie, Slender Billed Cockatoo
Meet Cherie, a 15 year old female Slender Billed Cockatoo. Since we highlighted Charlie, our Greater Sulfur Crested Cockatoo, last week I figured we better follow up with his girlfriend who we already talked about quite a bit. We purchased Cherie from someone in New Orleans, Louisiana when she was two years old when they could no longer keep her. Her name came from the French “Ma Cherie”, my darling, of course very appropriate since she is a New Orleans native! Her name should be pronounced “sure-E” but most people Americanize and we just say it “Share-E”. I don’t think she’s too offended either way. I distinctly remember picking her up at the Columbus airport. I was going to Ohio State at the time and I was heading home for a weekend, so my dad arranged for her to arrive just in time for me to taxi her home. From the time I put her in the car at the airport to the time we pulled into the bird shop parking lot she made the Slender Bill nervous call. If you’ve ever been around a Slender Bill, you would know what I’m talking about. It’s not super loud, but it is an incessant call, asking for a call back from another SB, to check in for safety. No matter what I said to her it did not soothe her and I came pulling in giving my dad the look of “what have you purchased??” Thankfully Cherie settled in to the store quickly and became friends with everyone she met. Cherie is an extremely sweet, playful, and talkative bird. Her signature “What are you doing?” is asked to everyone who walks by her cage or meets her in the aviary. She says a wide range of things including “Hi Cherie”, kissy sounds, and an adorable “whoa whoa whoa whoa” while she waggles her head side to side.
As you read in last week’s pet spotlight, Charlie quickly became enamored with Cherie and they are typically inseparable when they are out in the aviary. When Cherie is away from Charlie she is great with most all of our customers, volunteers, and staff, but when he is out there they pick each other over everyone else. Cherie has a special connection with our main pet caretaker, Bev. She crawls all over Bev when she’s cleaning her cage and will fly down to her whenever she enters the aviary. I think she’d even pick her over Charlie most days! Make sure to come say “What are you doing?” next time you are in the store to Ma Cherie!
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