Introducing....Ollie the Monkeyman!

For those of you who may not already be familiar with my "Ollie" stories, let me explain.  Ollie is a 5-1/2 year old Eclectus parrot who LOVES, LOVES, LOVES crafting and all things artsy, colorful and creative.  Not sure if it is the positive energy I give off when creating and creating art--or the sheer fascination he has watching things happening--but Ollie is at his happiest when he can watch creative things going on.

Lately, he has taken on new responsibilities. One of his new jobs is to tease Lacy Lulu, our 7 month old Border Collie puppy.  Like all "siblings", each wants to have what the other has.  In Ollie and Lacy's case, that means food and toys. Each, of course, will immediately grab the other's toy(s).  Ollie has also discovered how much fun it is to reinforce training the puppy by saying "Good boy!" when Lacy obeys a command and will often drop tasty bits of food off the side of his feeding station (aka the kitchen island) on purpose just to each her eat them up. Sometimes his enthusiasm goes a little into hyperdrive, however, and he will (literally) empty his entire bowl over the edge, one piece at a time. Maybe that is just his own way of expressing himself creatively!