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April 11, 2006
Good Company..
Personable parrots rule motel roost and keeper's heart
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Ruth Dennin has worked at the Oh! Shaw Motel along Route 30 in Gap nearly every day since 1976.Business has dropped in recent years. Some days, the register on the counter is not touched.
Ruth, 67, reads the newspaper or watches television to pass the time — and chats with her parrots.
"Hello. Pretty. Hi bird," the three socialites say in human-like voices.
"Heeeere cat," Petey the cockatiel cries. It mimics Ruth's calling of a feline which used to pop in for a saucer of milk.
"Chester is a bad boy. Where's Chester?" inquires Baby, a yellow-headed Amazon. Chester Gehman, Ruth's father, who ran the motel before her, died six years ago.
Ruth often lets the parrots out of their cages so they can perch on her shoulder or the cash register.
She pets them, feeds them and cleans out their cages daily. But she thinks of them more like children than pets.
Tilly is Ruth's favorite — the 6-year-old African gray just seems to love her more than the other two parrots.
Tilly pulls her claws through her beak to get Ruth's attention.
At night, Tilly can't rest comfortably until she shares some orange juice with Ruth and then watches Ruth go to bed.
When Tilly got an upper respiratory infection, Ruth nursed her back to health.
Petey marches on the floor close behind Ruth whenever he can, but the 14-year-old bird likes Ruth's husband, Gerald, best.
He lets Petey clutch the back of his shirt for rides and peck at his teeth with his beak.
Sixteen-year-old Baby prefers Trudy Albright, Ruth's former daughter-in-law, who works part time at the motel.
Baby's loyalty to Ruth waned about 12 years ago, Ruth says, after a customer's daughter tormented the bird by sticking her fingers in the birdcage.
Ruth is convinced the parrot blames her for not being in the room to stop the affront.
Since that day, the unforgiving parrot has never again rolled over or played dead or stuck her feet up in the air for Ruth.
In fact, the bird turns commando at times and flies after Ruth as if to attack her.
"She would bite me if I let her," Ruth says, admitting the lost love between them upsets her.
Ruth enjoys meeting guests from other countries she likely will never get a chance to visit.
The only celebrity Ruth ever entertained as a motel guest was a man dressed up like Santa Claus.
Ruth hands out a set of keys and an alarm clock to the occasional customer, but she and the parrots spend much of their days just watching Route 30 traffic go by.
And talking.
When asked to cry, Baby wails, "Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh."
Tilly can barely get a word in edgewise.
After Ruth coughs, Tilly asks, "Ruth, you OK? Tilly's OK."
When the birds know all is well, they keep on chatting.
"Sissy go bye-bye. Pop-popcorn. What was that?"
When Ruth leaves the room, she says, all the parrots feel a little abandoned.
"Where is Ruth? What are you doing?" Baby blurts, as clearly as a human. "Hello. Come here."
They miss her and Ruth says she knows all too well why.
"They don't want to be alone."
Posted by sue at April 11, 2006 08:38 AM