A couple take their pet parrots to the shops, opticians, supermarket, Chinese takeaway - and the pub.
Anne Spider-McKeown, 64, and partner Spider Spider, 66, who changed his name by deed poll to reflect his love of animals, rescued three Macaws in early 2020.
The trio – Chester and bonded pair Charlie and Elwood – were initially adopted by Anne and Spider after they had to give up their motorbike hobby after coming down with Covid in January 2020.
Sadly, Macaw Elwood, who was disabled and looked after by Charlie, passed away in July last year.
Chester had bonded with Anne, and after Elwood’s death Spider says he became better friends with Charlie.
Charlie doesn’t fly, as Elwood couldn’t fly and Charlie would look after the fellow bird – but since Elwood’s death, the couple have been trying to help him find his wings.
Now, Anne and Spider are regularly spotted out and about with the parrots – going to the supermarket, B&Q and even the local pub together.
Spider, from Birmingham, said: “Whenever we go pub for lunch with the birds, we always take them.
“Going out with them turns any shopping trip about three times longer – we don’t mind though, we love people asking questions, it’s great to interact with people.
“It’s an eye-opener for people, lots of people are gobsmacked that the birds are real and I'm not walking around with a stuffed parrot on my shoulder.
“Anne loves birds and always wanted a blue and gold Macaw since being a child, so we thought we could rehome a couple as a new hobby.
“It's like having two three-year-old kids in the house.
“Charlie used to come with us to all sorts of places and then a bit later we decided we would harness train Chester so he could have same element of freedom.
“Generally, they’re very happy to interact with people, when they’re both in the right mood they’ll let strangers give them treats – people are surprised they’re so gentle with their big beaks.”
The retired couple have made some changes to their garden to accommodate the birds, installing a huge bird net nine feet high outside.
They say they wanted to make sure the parrots could have some freedom, so they let them out into the garden under supervision.
Spider says the birds have big personalities – and says Chester is very protective of Anne, even telling Spider off if he goes near her.
And he says he’s been amazed by Charlie’s changed personality – saying the relationship between human and bird is like human and child.
Spider said: “When we lost Elwood, Charlie very distraught so i Ia lot of work into letting him know he had a friend in me.
“Now Charlie has become my best pal. Charlie says hello, hello Charlie and will sing in his own way which is something he never did before.
“Chester will talk more readily than Charlie, when the phone rings Chester is the first to say hello.
“We have a lot of fun with them, they’re loveable characters.”
Anne Spider-McKeown, 64, and partner Spider Spider, 66, who changed his name by deed poll to reflect his love of animals, rescued three Macaws in early 2020.
The trio – Chester and bonded pair Charlie and Elwood – were initially adopted by Anne and Spider after they had to give up their motorbike hobby after coming down with Covid in January 2020.
Sadly, Macaw Elwood, who was disabled and looked after by Charlie, passed away in July last year.
Chester had bonded with Anne, and after Elwood’s death Spider says he became better friends with Charlie.
Charlie doesn’t fly, as Elwood couldn’t fly and Charlie would look after the fellow bird – but since Elwood’s death, the couple have been trying to help him find his wings.
Now, Anne and Spider are regularly spotted out and about with the parrots – going to the supermarket, B&Q and even the local pub together.
Spider, from Birmingham, said: “Whenever we go pub for lunch with the birds, we always take them.
“Going out with them turns any shopping trip about three times longer – we don’t mind though, we love people asking questions, it’s great to interact with people.
“It’s an eye-opener for people, lots of people are gobsmacked that the birds are real and I'm not walking around with a stuffed parrot on my shoulder.
“Anne loves birds and always wanted a blue and gold Macaw since being a child, so we thought we could rehome a couple as a new hobby.
“It's like having two three-year-old kids in the house.
“Charlie used to come with us to all sorts of places and then a bit later we decided we would harness train Chester so he could have same element of freedom.
“Generally, they’re very happy to interact with people, when they’re both in the right mood they’ll let strangers give them treats – people are surprised they’re so gentle with their big beaks.”
The retired couple have made some changes to their garden to accommodate the birds, installing a huge bird net nine feet high outside.
They say they wanted to make sure the parrots could have some freedom, so they let them out into the garden under supervision.
Spider says the birds have big personalities – and says Chester is very protective of Anne, even telling Spider off if he goes near her.
And he says he’s been amazed by Charlie’s changed personality – saying the relationship between human and bird is like human and child.
Spider said: “When we lost Elwood, Charlie very distraught so i Ia lot of work into letting him know he had a friend in me.
“Now Charlie has become my best pal. Charlie says hello, hello Charlie and will sing in his own way which is something he never did before.
“Chester will talk more readily than Charlie, when the phone rings Chester is the first to say hello.
“We have a lot of fun with them, they’re loveable characters.”
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FunTranscript
00:00 I'm Anne and this is Spider and we've got two macaws, Blue and Gold, Chester and Green
00:10 Winged Macaw, Charlie.
00:13 We first took these on about two and a half years ago and a friend of ours put us in touch
00:19 with somebody that was involved with the Safe Haven Refuge where we got them from and we
00:25 went down to have a word with the chap about taking on two to start with and Charlie did
00:30 have a partner, his name was Al Wood but sadly he passed away last June.
00:34 So we took Al Wood and Charlie on first and then two weeks later we went back and fetched
00:39 Chester and so we had the three of them quite comfortably.
00:44 When you're taking a macaw on it's like taking on a two to three year old child.
00:49 The Blue and Golds are renowned for being the clowns of the macaw family so he gets
00:56 up to all sorts of tricks.
00:59 If we have a delivery of a package in a cardboard box he'll take hold of them and he loves going
01:05 into a cardboard box and chewing holes in it and if Anne's doing any potting with the
01:11 plants and things he'll stand on the table and he'll take an empty plant pot and he'll
01:15 throw it off the table.
01:16 When we take the birds out together and sometimes Charlie on his own but quite frequently now
01:22 both of them, the places we go to are like B&Q, Screwfix, they've been to the opticians.
01:30 We go to one of two garden centres on a regular basis so they're welcomed everywhere we do
01:37 go, they're welcomed.
01:39 We've never been told no you can't come in so that's what we get up to.
01:44 Anywhere we can take them they can come.
01:48 Chester does talk a little bit, he'll say hello, hello Chester, hello Chester Parrot.
01:56 If I'm wanting to come to me and I say come on, come on, he will say come on, come on.
02:03 He's just said hello now and if I'm eating and he wants something to eat he'll say want
02:10 some?
02:11 Won't you?
02:12 And when it comes to Charlie, Charlie will say hello, hello Charlie.
02:20 Sometimes he'll sit there and go Charlie.
02:23 Hello, hello Chester.
02:25 Hello Chester Parrot.
02:27 You can take a nice one.
02:30 Good boy.
02:33 They're wonderful, they're noisy, they let you know that they want their routine but
02:38 at the end of the day they're part of our life, they're like kids and we just enjoy
02:43 having them around here.
02:44 [Music]
02:55 [MUSIC]