On January 26, 2012 Officer Gonzalez responded to a call for abandoned animals in a home. When he arrived he found a yellow naped amazon living in filthy conditions, no food or water, cage filled with feces. The poor guy was in bad condition too, very pale and missing a lot of feathers- so many in fact we had a hard time identifying his breed!While he may not have been in the best shape, JoJo was still spunky. The entire ride back to the shelter he had some “colorful” words for Officer Gonzalez! Untrusting of strangers and quite the potty mouth, I moved him into my office. I didn’t really expect him to become a permanent fixture in the early days. But his nervousness around strangers and the fact that he would bite the heck out of anyone- including me, made him less than popular for adoption.
As many of his feathers starting to return, and his color improved so did his trust. While he is still very selective, he now loves attention!
If you have ever visited the shelter you may have had a JoJo greeting- he loves to greet visitors with his “Hello”, and to answer the phone. He uses “That Word” a lot less now- but he is still sassy and will interject with a laugh any chance he gets in a conversation. For a bird who would only eat “junk food” in his early days with us, I now cook for him weekly (he’s not spoiled or anything) but he will still beg for your lunch- especially pizza crust!
