RAVEN-OUS
My lover Kelly and I were living on the roof of a small hotel off of a little ally in the city of Chaing Mai, Thailand. Even though it was really just your basic $4 a day room we like to call it our penthouse since, other than the big hotels about a mile away we were in the highest building around and had a fantastic view of the city. Whenever we rent a room in any hotel we always ask for the top floor because although you have to climb a lot of stairs, you are usually above the noise and pollution. And this room was really special. On each side of the hotel there’s low wooden Thai style houses. In the back which is where our room was, is one of Chaing Mai’s many temple complexes, which has a huge temple cover in gold with lots of golden bells hanging off of it’s spires that tinkle in the wind. Also, there are Buddhist monks chanting and banging gongs most of the daylight hours but who sleep quietly all night so Kelly and I had a very pleasant stay there.
In fact it was so nice that we stayed an entire month with only a few side trips up into the Golden Triangle to score some Thai weed and smoke a little O. The other great thing about where we were staying was the aviary in front of the hotel. It’s pretty big too, probably 100 feet long, 50’ wide and 30’ high. It’s filled with tropical birds of all kinds and not just ones from Thailand either. Not only are there common birds like fantail pigeons and colorful little finches but there are ringed neck parakeets from India, parrots and lorikeets from Australia, grain hornbills from Indonesia, lovebirds from Africa. And those are just for color because there’s also songbirds like butcherbirds and magpies, plus ones we’ve never seen or heard before but whose songs are complex and beautiful. Then there were the talkers like myna’s and our favorite, the big jet blacker than black raven.
Even though Kelly and I had been there nearly a month and had fed the birds little treats almost every time we passed them most of them ignored us unless we were feeding them, however the raven was a totally different case. First of all he’s the alpha bird in the aviary. Only the hornbills are bigger than him but since they’re fruit eaters and he’s eats anything including meat well, there’s no contest of as to who is king of the cage. He was always not only first in line but he got all the choice morsels and he ate until he was full. His favorite thing is chicken bones and skin with his second being boiled peanuts. The peanuts and chicken skin he ate right away, the bones he buried in the dirt of the cage floor for later. He doesn’t care for fruit very much so that’s mostly what the other birds get.
Whenever we went out we’d buy some cheap fruit plus we would bring back any leftover’s from our meals for the birds. As soon as the raven saw us he would start cawing loudly and hopping from foot to foot on his favorite perch. This would alert the other birds who will also start making noise or singing and flying around the cage. We’d feed the raven first. Usually we would give him a little skin then a bone. While he was busy burying this it gave us a chance to feed the other birds. The hornbills are next, then the parrots, then the parakeets and so on down the line according to size and aggressiveness until we were out of grub. Of course, in between time whenever the raven hoped back onto his perch we had to give him something or he’d chase away all the other birds then caw at us.
After a while he became used to us feeding him so we even had to save a little something for when we left the hotel because god help us if we pass by the aviary with empty hands. Even if it was real late at night we still better have a treat for the raven or we’d hear about it. If we forget then his caws would change from a friendly welcoming sound to a raucous strident noise accompanied with a lot of wing flapping. Plus, if any other of the birds got too close to him then they received a vicious peck on their head from him. Kelly and I would talk soothingly to him telling him that we simply forgot and that we’ll bring him something next time but he wouldn’t listen, he was pissed. He even held a grudge.
The next time we’d pass we would make sure to bring him a treat but when he saw us he’d hop to his perch then turn his back on us. We would apologize but even if we’d offer him some chicken skin he’d just ignore us. The other birds didn’t care, they were happy to take whatever we brought when ever we’d bring it but then again, they didn’t act like they knew us at all or cared who gave them something. It was completely different with the raven. He knew us and cared about how we treated him. Sometimes he’d sulk for a day or even two before he became friendly with us again and would take food form us. He was always a delight because he was both intelligent and personable.
Kelly and I traveled to Chaing Mai many times over the years. If it was possible we always stayed in one of the rooms on the top of that hotel and every time we entered or left the place we would stop for a chat with our friend the raven and give him a small treat. He was always there and, as long as we fed him a little something, he was happy to see us.