Aww!

That choked me up with a smile.  Max, our Senegal parrot was big on "GImme Kiss!", "Whatcha doin?", singing, dancing, giving kisses, etc... all of that.  He ruled out family for 15 years.  He was a rescue that we adopted when he was a year and a half old.  When we got him he streaked like a Grackle and would yell "SHUT UP GOD DAMN IT!" if it got too quiet or boring.  He ended up with a vocabulary of about 30 words and phrases and could whistle a bunch of different tunes. Sadly, we had to rehome him when we went overseas for work.  That was during one of the global Bird Flu outbreaks and we would have had to ship him overseas where he would be quarantined for 6mos.  He would not have done well with that.  He was adopted by the director of women's athletics for a major university.  Their family had two pre teen girls and an African Grey parrot.  The director would give me updates occasionally on how Max was doing.

About 5yrs ago DW and I were in our new home on opposite sides of the house in different rooms when we both heard him clear as day.  He had been rehomed for 9yrs.  We both walked into our living room to see if we were nuts or if we had actually heard Max's voice.   The next day, I got a message from the athletics director telling me that Max had crossed the rainbow bride. Senegals can live for about 15yrs in the wild. In loving families, they live between 17 and 30 years.  Max was about 25 when he crossed the bridge.

 

He ran our world.  He would call for each of us if he knew we were home but not with him.  He would climb down from his cage, basket, or play scape and stomp around the house looking for us.  If it was dinner time he would start calling my wife's name which was basically demanding that she get dinner ready. He always got bites of things we had for dinner.

He had a huge personality.  He loved us all incredibly.  Having to leave him behind when we moved overseas is one of my very few regrets.

He gave us joy, he gave us laughs he took the occasional small chunk out of us in the spring during mating season as he chased us around yelling and screaming.

We loved that little winged rodent.  He loved us.

@ Rags - That's so wild that you both heard Max soon after he passed. It sounds like he was a wonderful companion.