Unique to Walla Walla

Though the gentleman who owns this bird (not pictured) doesn't live in the WWV any longer, he did live here for quite a while. He's here visiting his kids, and since my husband and I are friends with one of his sons and daughter-in-law, we happened to be visiting Saturday night when he stopped by with his famous parrot, Rascal.

Rascal is 12 years old and has lived with Danny and his family since the bird was 6 months old. I'm told he will live to be anywhere from 85-105 years old. Since most people don't carry a parrot around everywhere they go, Danny and Rascal have been in the local paper several times. Danny takes his bird everywhere. The bird is trained not to poop inside, and Danny knows when the bird needs to go and takes him outside. The bird also comes when he's called, responds to a sharp "NO!" and knows what "stay" means. He's a gentle bird and has only ever bitten one person - Danny's daughter-in-law, which Danny explains is because the bird is very jealous that she took away one of the bird's "boys."

On occasion, I have seen Danny shopping in a store with Rascal on his shoulder. I've also seen Rascal waiting outside a restaurant, perched on a newspaper dispenser, squawking at passers-by and scaring them to death! I've also seen Danny feeding Rascal part of his burger, and, my favourite, I've seen the bird clinging to the chains of a playground swing, while Danny pushes the swing back and forth. Rascal loves it!

Pictured here is one of Danny's other sons, cradling Rascal like a kitten. The bird doesn't care - he just lays there and enjoys having his feathers ruffled and his head and neck scratched. I actually got to hold this gorgeous animal, and felt very privileged.