Book 147: Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence - and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene M. Pepperberg

I have a parrot named Kiwi. He is a Caique, which is a kind of small parrot, about the size of a large robin and a bit chubbier, with thicker feet. This predisposes me to enjoy reading about other people's parrots and biases my opinion somewhat. I thought I'd just get that out there so you know where I'm coming from.

The story of Alex and Irene is a wonderful one that many pet owners will certainly love. Irene, a chemist, found her love of birds very early on in life. She decided to explore the linguistic abilities and mental faculties of the African Grey parrot, and wound up working with the one and only Alex. Irene jumped from university to university and subsisted on grants and funds from The Alex Foundation to pursue her dream of showing that birds do indeed have the capacity for complex language and thoughts.

This is Kiwi.

The story of Alex and Irene was genuine and honest. I enjoyed learning about Alex's abilities, and it encouraged me to spend more time training my own parrot to the extent that he can be trained. (He's nowhere near as smart or capable as Alex, but he can do a lot, and mostly, he just eats and snuggles and yells at everyone.)

Pick this up if you want a heartwarming tale which also shows that staying focused on your own life's work can get you through any kind of difficulty.