I was going to write about cats, but Bleys just did, so: Birds.

Quote Originally Posted by Citizen Bleys View Post

Birds?

Seriously, who wants the only pet that literally trouts on you. Constantly.

My cat is awesome and does not trout on me.
None of my cockateils, cockatoos, rosellas, ringneck or rainbow parakeets ever had problems defecating everywhere. I certainly would not like to be caught in the spray of some of the hawks, falcons, eagles and owls I work with, but that is simply due to size, and it's not a scenario that is very likely. And if it did? So what? trout happens, and it's not a dealbreaker when it comes to my feathery cohorts. As with any animal that responds to reward-based stimuli, birds (I'm thinking toucans and parrots) can also be toilet-trained.

I find corvids and parrots to be very fascinating, curious and friendly creatures. Our pet Stellar's Jay was adorable; hiding his peanuts around the room, and when we left or looked away he would go and re-hide them in different places. They have an awesome ability to mimic different animals (ours did a perfect imitation of a Swainson's Hawk, and some sort of parrot) and other environmental noises (I think our wee sprocket could also mimic a car alarm).

I wish I could have a pet crow, I always enjoy watching them interact, they're very social and intelligent. Once Joe passed by a dead crow in the middle of the street; probably a hit-and-run victim. The other crows in its flock kept hopping over to look at it and be near it, but of course they had to move whenever another car came; it was very sad.

Once I was walking down the street and saw two crows huddled together on the footpath, and as I approached, one of them dropped something - a perfectly intact dead sparrow one of them had been carrying in its beak. We had a tiny corvid stand-off as I inched closer to my house to go get my camera, and the crows hopped back towards their sparrow, seemingly unafraid and not at all in a hurry. Eventually I caved and went to go get my camera, and one of them just hopped up, carefully picked up its prize, and looked at me as if to say "sucker!" before flying away. It was very beautiful.