Pavlov's parrot theory

I feel like I am living in Pavlov's dog theory. You know the one: the master rings a bell when the dog's food is ready and the dogs come a runnin'. Then one fine day Pavlov rings the bell, the dogs come a runnin' but there is no food.Well I have an African Grey Parrot at home. This bird shrieks at all and any hours of the day. Initially I thought that it was random but today sitting outside making some calls he/she (we don't know the parrot's sex) didn't make a sound. I started to wonder why. I think that I am being played by the parrot.Crackers (the parrots name) yells when his/her water is dirty, when there is no food, when he/she is cold or when he/she gets too hot. Crackers yells and waits for a response. If no response comes Crackers yells a bit more and a bit more until I come a runnin' and do all the things that I think will "shut him up". Little do I know but there sits Crackers the Parrot mastermind that he/she is in a little cage making my jump whenever her yells.Am I running after the parrot or is the parrot running after me? hmmm....

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.