Buffy came to live with us almost two years ago, after we lost the second of our pair of Red-Breasted Toucans after almost 20 years of happiness with them. Buffy was a delight right from the beginning. She's active and happy, plays constantly and is very bright.

Because we don't believe in wing-clipping, she spends daytimes in her outdoor aviary, sleeps inside our home at night, and doesn't roam around with us when we go out. But, she is still very much a part of our lives. We often tease that the leg-band that Emerald Forest put on her, is actually a wrist-watch, because she knows to the minute, when it's time to go outside. She starts by rattling her favorite indoor toy - a plastic heart on a chain. If that doesn't work immediately, the bell ringing starts and continues until she gets my attention. She adds squawking to the mix as well, on the mornings when I'm unusually slow. Once outside, she spends her day communing with the outside critters - squirrels and other birds, playing wildly with her toys, and taking baths. We also play catch - a game she excells at. She didn't know what rain was whe she came to us, and I guess she thought the sky was falling or something because she'd hide from it under her partial roof, but she soon got used to it and now enjoys bathing in it.

She will now sit for as long as my arm holds out - and get petted. It starts with her holding my finger in her bill, as I stroke up and down her neck and rub the back of her head with my other hand. She really gets into it when she starts mouthing my finger gently with her bill, and closing her eyes. One week, we had been away for a few days, and the first thing she did when I got back was to hop down onto the one perch that we use for this activity, throw her head back, open her bill and close her eyes - all ready for attention. Guess she missed me!