Jewel, my Congo African Grey Parrot posed in front of some Christmas wrapping paper so we could all have a jigsaw puzzle to work on.

As always, you may have to scroll over to get the whole puzzle in your computer window. You can make this easier (or harder) by changing the number and shape of puzzle pieces.



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Jewel is a 12 1/2 year old Congo African Grey Parrot that I have had the pleasure of living with for the last 12 years. She has a good vocabulary, but I honestly have no idea how many words she knows because I have never tried to count them. She picks and chooses what she wants to say - just because I want her to say something, doesn't mean that she will actually say it. For instance - I have said "good morning" to Jewel every days since she came to live here, yet she has never said it back to me. She does say "bye bye - go to work" when I say that I am going to work now.

One funny story I have to tell about trying to get her to say something that I wanted her to say is when I decided that she should say "Aawww - aren't you adorable". I kept repeating it to her or to the dogs and finally she started off with "aawww". A few days later, it became "aawww, aren't", followed by "aawww, aren't you". After several days more, she said "aawww, aren't you a door". Well, I couldn't help it, and I laughed. That was all she needed and for several weeks, all I could get her to say was "aawww, aren't you a door", followed by a long laugh. Finally, weeks later, she did finish it and I made sure I gave her a great reaction when she said "aawww, aren't you adorable!".

I do not really spend time trying to teach Jewel to talk. She picks up what she wants to pick up and ignores the rest - like "good morning". Even without the talking, she is a wonderful companion.

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