Gogi's rescue

by Lauren
(Perth, Australia)

When Gogi was dropped by a raven almost right into my lap in the backyard over breakfast I didn't think he'd live for very long. He was a baby and pretty sick and sore - with no tail feathers. I named him Gaugan (as in the painter who used those bright colours) which was sooned turned into the less pretentious 'Gogi'.

I took him to the avian vet a few times in the first couple of weeks but I was told he probably wouldn't survive the bacterial infection he had. Gradually though, he got better with a lot of feeding with a syringe and the placid little personality turned into a hilarious confidence. I work from home so he?s always flying around my open-plan place, gently harrassing my poor cats and trying to get as close to me as he can.

He's toilet trained (OK, 90% of the time, but that percentage goes down if he?s annoyed at me for any reason - like I've told him "no" too many times in succession. Mostly I think it's me getting behaviour trained by him. He loves most people but takes a real dislike to the occasional person who visits, but he's never bitten at all hard. He loves rolling on his back and getting his belly scratched while I read, and I can only use a trick to get him in his cage ONCE because he learns so quickly. I swear he's only one or two points behind me in IQ but gaining fast.

He has a bath every morning in the bathroom sink while I have a shower and then we both "preen" in front of the mirror until we look half-way ok. He comes to my studio with me and flies around in the bigger space and poos in my paintings (everyone's a critic). He loves all the usual lorikeet food but adores peas and broadbeans from their shell. He's sitting on my desk while I type this eating peas and making happy noises. I just adore him.

Rainbow lorikeets are a pest around here and the local councils are currently doing a cull, which saddens me no end, knowing how gorgeous these little guys are.