This site was originally created to show off and answer commonly asked questions about our two Macaws (below) and to provide information that other owners of large companion birds might find useful.
360degree movie of Eagle flying over the Dolomite Mountains
(use right-mouse to look around and up/down)
7-minutes of Golden Eagle Flight released 2700+ feet up from the Burj Khalifa, flying over Dubai and stooping at 170mph to land on his handler's arm.
Bittersweetly, as of now, June, 2017, we no longer have Sugimac and Jazzy.
After 25 years of being their parents we knew from the start that the day would come when we would have to give them up because their life expectancy of another 60 years or so compared to our life expectancy of only a couple more decades at best meant that they would likely far outlive us.
So we wanted to find a new home for them that would keep them together; that would take the same care of them as loved members of a family that we have been doing; and that just plain "felt" right. And we wanted to get this done while we had some say in the matter as opposed to having our heirs having to do something, anything with them in the event of our deaths or incapacitation.
The thought of those circumstances meaning that they would likely mean them suddenly losing us PLUS possibly being separated PLUS moving somewhere totally different PLUS dealing with new, untested owners was almost too much for us to bear.
So after about 2 years of looking and three aborted tries, we finally, at virtually the last minute, found a place that met all of our criteria. After a few weeks of interviews and cross visits on both sides, we boxed up all their toys, medical records, cages and stands, favorite foods and carted it all up to Cathy's Critters in Princeton, Texas about 30 minutes from here. We set up their cage exactly as it had been but in a new location in front of a big picture window, said our goodby's, let the new people take them from us and put them in their new home and left with heavy hearts.
So while they were someplace new (with a LOT of new action and excitement), they still had each other and were in their own cage, eating their favorite foods.
After gritting our teeth for two months, we finally, on July 8th went back up to see how they were doing, hoping for the best and slightly dreading the worse. It went great. When we got there, they were out on a perch&swing setupon the front porch. Sugimac stepped right up really checking me out, looking up into my face and then settled down and and sort of cuddled up. Jazzy on the other hand did not want to step off of the new owner's hand onto mine and let me know it in no uncertain terms. He did step up on Kathi's hands though and probably would have on mine had we given it more time.
So we'll go up each month now on open house day to say Hi secure in the knowledge that they are doing just fine.