Dr. G’loo and Mr. Gabdool!

Dr. G’loo and Mr.Gabdool

G’loo is our pet golden retriever and Gabdool is the parrot my brother keeps as a pet. G’loo was brought in the house seven years ago, while Gabdool is a more recent addition. Needless to say, G’loo being senior to Gabdool feels that she should have more privileges in the house than him. Also, like a child, she feels a bit jealous that the love and attention she receives from us is going to be divided now.

G’loo is sweetly innocent, a child still. Gabdool is a seasoned rogue, in my opinion. In appearance, G’loo has large and expressive brown eyes, a piebald nose (discoloured after playing with a tyre that had a metal wire inside it – unknown to us) that had once been a handsome black, and a noble face which can almost be termed as masculine, with a long streak of dark hair between her eyes. Gabdool reminds me a lot of Gulshan Grover, a villain of Bollywood films (me not a fan of birds and reptiles, adore all mammals), with his beady snakelike eyes, red bulbous beak which is sharp enough to draw blood from a victim, and rough, reptilian claws. In looks, G’loo is very very sweet, angelic and beautiful while Gabdool ‘projects’ a better picture of himself by fluffing himself up to look softer and constantly grooming himself. Gabdool knows he looks good and tries to improve that a bit while G’loo is not aware of her good looks and tries to improve her behaviour and temperament instead! Good for her!!

As far as size is concerned, G’loo is about a hundred times heavier than Gabdool and a lot larger as well. One swipe of her heavy, chubby front paw (that reminds me of a lion cub’s paws) can do some drastic damage to the cheeky parrot. However, Gabdool does not know his weaknesses and the humble G’loo her strengths. G’loo is so helpless that she gets scared of even a cockroach! Gabdool recklessly tries to attack anyone hovering around his cage, irrespective of size or stature.

Earlier, when Gabdool had been new to the house, we had put him in a three foot cage. A bit confined, his temper would often flare up at the slightest provocation. He would spend most of his time showing off before an audience (mostly humans and other birds, the avian kind), doing somersaults while hanging onto the bar with his beak. However, G’loo was not part of his audience. He had no desire to perform before her. When the sweet G’loo went near his cage to have a closer peek at his antics, he probably thought that she had come near him as one approaches one’s prey. He stopped his antics all of a sudden and became seriously quiet, wary of the large animal approaching him, him (poor thing) being confined in a cage. He viciously charged at G’loo but was prevented from doing any harm, by the cage. Poor G’loo! Perhaps she had gone near him out of curiosity or to be friends! Who knows? The hostile welcome from Gabdool was enough for them to become mutual adversaries. G’loo got a bit angry for being attacked for no reason and decided to retaliate by barking loudly and nearing the cage in a menacing way. We had to stop G’loo from hurting herself in her attempt to threaten her foe. (The poor sweetie has very little sense when it comes to the ways of the world). It is a different story now. Gabdool has been shifted to a six-foot cage by my brother and now Gabdool sits high up on his perch, taking an occasional swing, looking down at G’loo with scorn and disdain. She is no longer of interest to him.

Eating habits….hmm…G’loo is a prolific eater. There is nothing she does not like! She has developed a taste for vegetarian items, although she does get choosticks and other dog-treats and goodies, occasionally. G’loo dines in a clean sort of way. A few crumbs and bits here and there, outside her dish, but still very tidy. All her attention is focused on the food before her. Sweets are never refused. She usually likes to dine with all her ‘human pets’. A very social animal! Dining alone is boring for her. Also she eats with knowledge about diets and nutrition, many a times. Like for example, she would eat the pith of citrus fruits, knowing that is high in flavonoids, or green leafy veggies. Gabdool on the other hand, is a messy eater. He uses his claws to hold the food (mostly nuts, guavas, corn, veggies – he is a health freak!) and nibbles on it slowly, with a faraway look in his eyes, while pondering over more pressing matters at hand and the state of the world, in general. About a third of the food (the good part of it like the flesh of the fruit or the nuts) goes in his stomach while the rest of it scatters on the floor of the cage. Gabdool is oblivious to the mess he has created and also the stink of rotting food around him. A boor, compared to the aristocratic Doctor G’loo. The reason she gets the title ‘Doctor’ here is that she knows the good stuff from the bad as well as she is more like the refined Dr.Jekyll, with her sober tastes and mild temper and Gabdool is more like the rogue Hyde. Often times, Gabdool is a bit pampered with all the new food items he gets. His rejects (like pet food bought specially for him, nuts) are sometimes given to the tame G’loo, who eats anything without fuss.

G’loo is a very social creature. Loves humans and welcomes every visitor with an item in her mouth. Usually it is some clothes (mostly grabbed hastily from the freshly-washed stack of clothes kept neatly by Bai on a table), but she understands which clothes not to bring out to guests! G’loo wants to share every joke and likes to laugh with the group – share every emotion with her human companions. If she sees anyone crying, she hurries over to comfort them and wipe away their tears. Gabdool is still very anti-social, a bit wild. Ofcourse, he does like to showoff his talents, but has not yet learnt to start a conversation with his human friends. (Most of his conversations are still limited to other parrots he encounters outside the window of his room).

G’loo loves to spend her time constructively. She likes to eat, snooze and play games. Playing hide-and-seek with human friends is her forte. We usually cover her eyes and ask the person (one at a time as she still has to learn to count large numbers!) to go and hide somewhere. Then at the call of ‘Ready’ by the person hiding, she shoots like an arrow, to find the person. Sometimes she cheats, using her nose to sniff the direction in which the person is headed, to hide (since her eyes are covered). Other games she loves are pillow fights, rug fights (wherein the human player hides under a rug and G’loo tries to nose her way inside the cosy rug which is held down firmly by the squirming bundle inside), racing and playing catch-catch on the terrace, ball games, tug-o’-wars with ropes and other items, doga (dog yoga) and stretching. Gabdool likes to play his own games, which are highly destructive. One such game is to perch himself on a stick that has been laid across the cage, at a height and then attack and gnaw at the same stick in a vicious manner. Soon, after repeated attempts at breaking the stick, the stick gets split to the point where a single thread of wood is holding the two pieces together. A last hack at the stick and it breaks, with Gabdool holding for dear life onto the part he is still perched upon, watching in wicked glee and doom, his own ‘downfall’ (physical and mental), as the stick collapses to the ground in slow motion (err…that is we would like to see it in slow motion). Another game he likes are flapping his wings rapidly when let out of the cage (yes, he is let out many times and has never tried escaping – he likes all the attention and good, readymade food he gets here!). He also likes to mock-fight, using his sharp beak. If we try to reach out for him through the bars of the cage, the pupils of his eyes turn large and small – a sign that he has been provoked and is ready to attack – and then he lunges forward to strike at our fingers with his steel beak. Often, his lunge is so vicious that he loses his balance and almost falls off the stick!

Sleeping habits….G’loo sleeps next to her human folks, close to them. We tried getting her a dog bed, but she stopped sleeping on that in a week or so. She likes to snuggle up close to her ‘Mom’ and sleep under the same rug! Often times, us humans wake up with a start when there are noises in the street, late at night, but G’loo sleeps through it all like a baby. She has been brought up that way. She cannot dream of sleeping alone. She is sad to be left alone in a room during daytime as well, while the rest of her folks are in another room. When he is not playing his dangerous games, Gabdool is found sleeping, perched on the stick with one claw slightly raised above the stick and eyes shut (sometimes he seems to sleep with eyes wide open).

Gabdool loves the computer and spends a lot of his free time (time aside from grooming himself, gobbling and playing destructive games) perched on my brother’s shoulder and gazing pedantically at the computer screen, while bro is seated in front of the computer. G’loo hates computers and walks about the room restlessly, when her loved ones are seated before a computer. After some time, frustrated that her human friend is not leaving the computer, she goes to him or her and clambers up upon their lap, entreating them to shut down the PC and play with her instead!

Sometimes I feel that secretly, G’loo would like to become a bit like Gabdool – a bit bold, headstrong and adventurous; while Gabdool would like to tone down a bit to become like G’loo, sweet-tempered and social, to be accepted by humans. The urge to change roles, like a Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde would wish for. (i.e when Hyde has done too much mayhem and distruction, a dormant part of him wishes to become Jekyll again and when Jekyll has lived a decent life for too long, Hydian characteristics start popping their ugly heads out). Dunno…but I wish sweet G’loo would stay the way she is and Gabdool would learn to be like her. I will keep on hoping for this…

~ by goldendog on August 15, 2007.