@sozobe,
well, rather inauspiciously. He was fledging and sort of plummeted into a bush next to a fence. I went and untangled him and he was startled and knocked stupid for a bit. He then recouperated and my Dad thought itd be cool to keep im and my mom lost the whole thing. (She later learnd to love Murphy (she named it) and was often seen feeing it by hand and talking to it. Murphy was as chatty as a siamese. Hed sort of make muffled caws, chips, and clicks. He was a cool bird. I took him into shw and tell (I was about 9) and still in Catholic school. The nun said that he was EVIL. I cried (what a wussie I was, I shoulda decked the old wombat) The love of my life carried Murphy home(he sat on her shoulder and did NOT ****, I was in heaven and my dad was the one who started calling Sr Consolata a wombat. I hadda look it up and next day I was called to Momma Superior for passing around the name Sr Mar WOmbat. I was sent home to reflect on it and my dad came to school and made the point that none of Gods creatures was inherently evil and he talked a good one about St Francis . Momma Superior couldnt just leave it lie so I was punished and my dad winked at me and gave me a lecture about ho e uck it up and accept things that are not fair and righteous. He was ahead of his time
But I digress.
Murphy was my best bud for quite a while, e had Irish setters who ere, compred to Murphy, about as dumb as ants are to hunabs. Irish setters are about the stupidest of domesticated animals. I think that there was a multi genic (SNP) ffect thatm when they begn breeding Irish setters for looks and conformity, the same gene expressed native intelligence and there as an inverse reltionship, (The prettier the dog, the stupider), Sorta like a lot of humans on tv. They know they will be "kept" so why bother learning any skills
