Hi, And welcome to Unpretending’s Substack.
We had just finished therapy and had driven to get Spencer their favourite ‘after therapy treat’, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) when we were delightfully surprised by seeing a cockatoo happily sitting on top of a car without the attempt to fly away. We have vast quantities of Cockatoo’s right across Australia, and are the morning wake up alarm for many a soul.
Several years ago we kind of had our own cockatoo, not in a cage mind you, and he wasn’t actually ours. He was a thin, scraggly old fella who’d lost his tail and climbed into our garden one winter’s day. We called him Barney, and feed him bird seed over that winter twice a day. He slowly became well, fattening up, eyes becoming clear and bright and he eventually grew another tail. Over the next couple of winters he’d come back and respond to his name by tilting his head from side to side, expecting to be fed and bringing his friends. These days we don’t recognise him if he comes with his mates, but seeing they often live over 75 years old, I reckon he’s still about.
When we saw this cockatoo on the car, we immediately remembered Barney, so out came the camera and we recorded mostly for ourselves but afterwards we decided to share it with you. There is a second video towards the end of this post, one that completely made our day.
Video One Transcript:
There’s a cockatoo on this car. I don’t often see cockatoos on cars, I don’t think I have ever seen a cockatoo on a car. They’ve got their boot (trunk) open, maybe the cockatoo belongs to them? I’m not sure but there it is just sitting there, preening itself on their car. It’s just, that’s gorgeous. Ah just a cockatoo on the car.
Sorry, there’s people walking past. I just love cockatoos.
Uh-oh what’s gunna happen? This dudes gonna drive away, no he can’t drive away his windows open, his doors open. Oh-no this person is literally patting the cockatoo.
Oh my gosh, how cool is that? Oh my gosh, this cockatoo must belong to them. Oh my gosh! That is the coolest thing in the world, can you see that?
Video 1:
Because we are who we are, and because someone else in the carpark (parking lot) went over to take a photo, we hopped out of our car and headed over to ask if we could meet the cockatoo.
Transcript with description of video two
Unpretending approaches Hoppy the Cockatoo while he’s perched on the driver’s side rear mirrors, the owner who we are calling Dude, is introducing Hoppy to us as we remove our sunglasses.
Unpretending: Hello!
Dude: So he can see you eyes you know.
Unpretending: Oh I’ll do that. Hi Hoppy
Dude talking to Hoppy: This is Hoppy’s friend. Can Hoppy’s friend say hello to Hoppy?
Unpretending: Can I say hello?
The Dude moves his hand away and steps back
Dude to Hoppy: Hello Hoppy, Hoppy’s friend. Yeah. Hello Hoppy.
Unpretending reaches over and gently scratches Hoppy under his chin.
Unpretending: Oh my gosh. Hi Hoppy. Oh you’re a darling.
Unpretending to Dude: How old is Hoppy?
Dude: Hoppy is-yes he’s 7, about 7.
Unpretending: About 7? Oh you’re so sweet.
Dude: He’s going to go (live) about 125 I heard, incredible.
Unpretending continues to scratch and croons to Hoppy, who becomes interested in Unpretending’s bracelet.
Unpretending: Hi! How are you? Ooh, oh you’re so sweet. Oh my gosh, you’re a darling. Oh do you like that do you? You can’t have that. That’s my bracelet. Oh you’re the sweetest little thing I’ve ever seen. Thank you.
Female: He’s going for your bracelet.
Unpretending: Oh he’s so gentle isn’t he.
Hoppy hears the Dude rustling a plastic bag from the back of the car and immediately turns from Unpretending and begins to waddle up the side of the car towards his owner.
Unpretending: Oh you’re going to go up there are you. Oh! That’s just the cutest thing ever.
Hoppy continues to walk along to roof of the car over to the Dude.
Unpretending to Dude: He’s looking for you. He’s going to talk to you here he comes.
The Dude looks over at Hoppy and continues to rustle in the plastic, and speaks for Hoppy as if Hoppy is talking.
Dude: He can hear the plastic, “Oh hang on somethings going on here”.
Unpretending: Oh look at how he walks!
The video stops there with a very excited Unpretending, they say goodbye after that and head back to our car. It was a wonderful experience and really helped settle and ground our System after the work we’d done in therapy. We hope you enjoyed watching our experience and it gives you a lift if you need one today.
Video 2:
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Unpretending Spontaneous is the name used by a Multiple System from Australia, the technical term is currently called DID - Dissociative Identity Disorder. This blogcast is our journey as we attempt to function well in society as a multiple while healing from our traumatic past.