My fearless 11.6 oz “Rottweiler”

Head-strong. Smart. Beautiful. Fearless. Loyal .
And very loving.

Who am I talking about?
Flipper.
(Aka my 11.6 oz. “Rottweiler” with feathers)

She is a Blue Front Amazon parrot. Born in 1996, she was given to me when she was eight months old.
(That does not mean I contributed to her being head-strong : )

Boy or Girl?
Physically she is tiny, but her personality is LARGE. This feisty little bundle of feathers had me convinced for years (ten, to be more exact!) that she was a boy.

I thought a girl would be much less rambunctious!
(Yes, I was taking the girl/boy stereotyping to the bird world : )

When we moved to Twin Falls she decided it’s a good place to nest.
And that’s how I found out Flipper is a girl!
(It’s a long story. It will be in another post.)

Attack Bird or Social Butterfly?
While she was growing up her room was right by my home office. Many afternoons she would snooze on my shoulder while I was working.
She loved it when clients would come over with their paperwork. She enjoyed all the attention.

Occasionally they would bring their dogs along. I can’t tell you how many times Flipper had to be sent to her room because she wanted to attack my clients’ dogs!

Love and Loyalty
Sometime work or family requires me to travel. If I can, I take them both with me.

When that is not possible I need to take special precautions with Flipper.
For the first day or two she doesn’t want to eat…

I found the best way to keep her eating is to instruct the “babysitter” to give her all her favorite treats: eggs, cheese, and pizza.

Nutritious diet is not a priority then. Once the goal is reached and she starts eating normally then she’ll go back to her regular healthy diet. And by that time she’s good friends with the babysitter too.
(All that “bribing” with pizza works : )

Pets are Family

Growing up my family had large dogs.

A dog would have been more the pet I thought I would have. Instead of dogs I have birds.

(Two highly opinionated birds, I might add!)

It doesn’t matter whether your pet weighs 100 lbs. or 11 oz.  Their love and loyalty is just as strong.

Mariana Fieraru

Mariana Fieraru, an Eastern European transplant, fell in love with her new home shortly after landing in New York. She "discovered" pizza! Years later she still loves pizza. And so do her two feathered-kids, Sunny and Flipper

Mariana worked on both, the east and the west coast.
Big or small, each project she worked on helped define the importance of gaining and sustaining a competitive edge in an increasingly complex business environment.

Business know-how, love of teaching and writing – all combined in 2006 to form OBI.
Its mission: to make learning fun! And easy.

Through its training, consulting, and publications OBI builds bridges of knowledge to take you from where you are to
where you want to go. Using a mix of serious, informal, analytical, and optimistic approach, OBI truly makes learning fun.

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