Johnny the Psychic Budgie

PIJAC Canada has been working with CO_ESP (Cooperative for the survival of parroquites) and we have invited them to share one of their stories with us.

Johnny the Psychic Budgie

By Claire Versailles

The following events occurred at the end of February 2008 and had a significant impact on the life of one of my You Tube correspondents.

Photo: Steve Donoghue

She and her companion shared their lives with a most handsome budgerigar named Johnny. Beautifully clad in blue, this young male was a gifted speaker and unmistakably the best ping-pong ball imitator I have heard to date (see on You Tube). The trio lived in the UK, in the East Midlands region of Leicestershire (north of London).

Sometime during the weekend of February 23-24, the couple began to observe considerable changes in budgie Johnny’s behaviour: usually very tame and friendly, he was gradually becoming grouchy and distant, refusing to step up, biting everything in sight (including his human companions), constantly perching on the highest branch of the room (his LEAST favourite), looking blankly into nothingness, and invariably screeching his head off!

The following day brought no relief for the dismayed couple as the situation had even worsened. What in heaven’s name could possibly perturb a budgie to this extent? Physically, he appeared perfectly normal and there were no changes in his feeding or his droppings. Nonetheless, all their efforts to rehabilitate Johnny failed miserably and they despaired to ever see him in his normal state again. Sick with worry, they began to wonder if their bird had not just simply “lost it”…

Four long days thus passed amid mounting tension and stress, until:

February 27, 2008, nearing one o’clock in the morning, the awakening is brutal — an earthquake (5.2 on the Richter scale) has just struck in East Midlands and its epicentre is therefore relatively close to their home. It is the strongest quake to hit the UK in the past 25 years and has been felt as far as Northern Ireland, Holland, and elsewhere.

As you may have guessed, within hours after the tremor, Johnny was back to his old self again. And our friends were now reassured that, if ever there was a next time, they would be forewarned well in advance… thanks to Johnny!

Inhabitants of regions at risk should take heed: a little budgie could very well be the ideal companion?

Unfortunately, Johnny the psychic budgie has since passed away but he remains vividly remembered on You Tube.

Claire Versailles is a member of the CO-ESP and of the Association québécoise des amateurs de perroquets (AQAP).