Customer Reviews:
 Devastating Tale of a Misguided Animal Owner and a Lovely Bird August 26, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
I fell in love with the central character of Sarah in this book, and I've rarely been as angry as I was when she died in such a senseless, unnecessary way. I kept wanting to go and save Sarah from what the inevitable. I am giving the book 2 stars because Ellis-Bell does do a good job of describing the wonders of macaw personality and makes you fall in love with Sarah. I have a blue and gold, a rescue, unclipped, and I was so excited to find a book with a blue and gold as a central character. Unfortunately, the ending devastated me for weeks, and I still tear up at what happened with Sarah.
Guilt is a central theme in the book. Ellis-Bell feels guilty for Sarah's capture, for keeping her in a cage, for Sarah's screams (note to the uninitiated - screaming is NORMAL in a macaw and any parrot, it is loud, expect it and learn to live with some screaming), for Sarah not being able to be free, and for Sarah ruining the lives of her husband and other animals. Of course, Sarah doesn't ruin their lives on purpose, she's simply a macaw and one that's set free without guidelines or structure in her life.
Misinformation is rife in the book, and it is, if anything, a guide to how not to keep a macaw. Some of this misinformation is further perpetuated by the owner of the sanctuary - for one thing, meat is fine for macaws in small amounts. I'm not impressed by her either - letting Ellis-Bell adopt a sick, special needs bird knowing she believes the bird should be free and can never be handled. Most of this misinformation has already been mentioned, but the biggest one of all was letting the bird out without any training or attempt to see if Sarah could have been handled. The macaw I adopted was considered vicious when we got her, but we've worked through that. She was also my first bird, but unlike Ellis-Bell, I did a ton of research and found some good people to help me. I have lost her outside overnight (ironically, when she was clipped), we found her very early the next morning, and because she could be handled, she climbed right down and onto my arm after a little coaxing. I can't help but think Sarah would have had a better chance had she been touchable. Also, the author is married to a contractor - why not build an aviary for Sarah so she could go outside while Ellis-Bell gardened? Also, why not put food in the trees so that Sarah could have some chance of surviving?
Even with the dogs, Ellis-Bell interprets their actions on a human basis. She goes overboard with Sarah, thinking that what Sarah wants is freedom without any kind of structure, when what Sarah probably wanted (based on my own macaw) was to be with her human flock and be secure in that flock.
The ending is just horrific, compounded by the idiotic loss of Zoey, and worst of all, before Sarah is even gone, she adopts another macaw, and then proceeds to compare him favorably to Sarah. You wonder then if Sarah's death affected her as much as it does her readers. It scares me that she has another macaw, in this case one that is known for behavioral issues and said to be perhaps the smartest of the macaws. I hope things go well for her new bird, but I have my doubts.
Sarah was a wonderful bird; the author clearly has issues and problems, and it's horrible that her problems led to Sarah's death. If you want to read the book, I'd stop at page 189. The rest tells of Sarah's death in excruciating detail, and it's horrific.
 Animals are endangered when their human caretakers anthropomorphosize. August 25, 2008
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
The image that comes to my mind when I think about the woman who wrote this book is a manic woman living in a run-down trailer on a garbage strewn lot surrounded by more animals than she can care for. And certainly more animals than she can care for properly. Perhaps she is an animal hoarder, that is someone who believes that it is her mission to save or rescue animals and who believes that whatever treatment she provides is better than anything that anyone else could do.
But she did a terrible job taking care of this bird and let it try to fend for itself in the chilly forests of Northern California. (SPOILER: the bird starved to death or died from exposure.) This macaw and the conure and something like 39 cats lost their lives as a result of her irresponsibility. She fed the birds inappropriate foods and gave the bird gin-and-tonics! She let the birds torment the dogs, she accumulated stray cats and then wrote off their lives. One wonders what sort of veterinary care any of these animals received. She repeatedly disregarded the advice of bona-fide bird rescuers. She gave the bird gin-and-tonics! (I had to repeat that. I just cannot believe that someone would do this.) All the while the phone is ringing, the birds are squawking, the dogs are cowering, the cats are being eaten by mountain lions, food and poop cover the floor of the trailer, old machinery rusts in the "garden", her husband has moved into his office....
She imagined what these animals think, in fact the very title of the book demonstrates her tendency to anthropomorphosize. It's unlikely that the parrot thought she was a dog. It's unlikely that any of these animals had the thoughts (I'm a dog, I'm bad, I'm good, I'm clever) she claimed for them or felt the human emotions (jealously, longing, shame, sorrow due to injustice, remorse) she attributed to them. These are the classic characteristics of an animal hoarder: that she has some sort of special, perhaps innate, ability to understand what animals think and that animals possess some sort of special ability to always do what's best, to predict the future, to understand any situation, to understand the things she says to them.
This woman is irresponsible at best, negligent probably, and perhaps mentally ill and, so, not fit to take care of this many animals, or any animals. The book is not well-written and it appears, from the comments of other reviewers, that some of the more technical facts are incorrect. The discussion of her sex life is gratuitous.
Dr. Doolittle she is not. Someone should call animal control.
 Vicarious Icarus August 25, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
A bit of lucky serendipity brought me to "The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog." Ironically, I was looking for a book to help me train my moronic dog to hunt birds, but I found the ultimate bird book instead.
The author has created something unique and wonderful here: a contemporary tale of interspecies civilization. Apparently, the Biblical imperative for people to rule the earth does not fully apply at Nancy Ellis-Bell's hill top retreat: dogs, cats, fish, wildlife -- even contractor husbands -- sort it out and learn to live and love together in close proximity. I would imagine that animal trainer purists might find it objectionable that the fine and regal macaw, Sarah, is allowed full and destructive reign over the household; I'm sure that is not tolerated in well appointed apartments and homes where macaws are something of a curious accessory. But I have no patience for that view. As a matter of fact, I own a ranch in Montana where a neighbor raises beautiful horses that are sold primarily for "lawn furniture" to wealthy folks in Jackson Hole. Nancy's bird Sarah is definitely no accessory or piece of moving animate furniture: she's alive, complicated, emotional, and fully engaged with Nancy on nearly every level. Not since reading the works of my former teacher Jane Goodall, who developed an epic relationship with the great apes in Africa and was thus able to look outside the scientific paradign and see the apes as fellow creatures, have I read anything quite so compelling as Nancy's book.
The story builds to an Icarus conclusion that is sad, powerful, deeply human. Would the bird still be alive if she had kept it indoors? Perhaps. Then again, it would have lived for a long while with its wings taped to cardboard, as the poachers do who ship them out of the Amazon. But that's no life for a bird! Nancy tells a tale of living with a macaw as an equal. That is the great challenge for a world in a time of growing environmental crisis. Can we live with salmon, buffalo, migrating birds, bears -- macaws? Nancy has shown us the path with her one true bird and we should all learn from it. I loved this book.
The Author Who Thought She Could Write August 23, 2008
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
Ms. Ellis-Bell's callous and ignoble treatment of the macaw known as Sarah, in what was published under a clever marketing title by Harmony Books under the auspices of Crown Publishing, is nothing more than 244 pages of self-justification for the death of the macaw by a woman who had no business, absolutely none, adopting the bird in the first place.
Interested in Sarah, I was as I read on, instead supposed to care about Ms. Ellis-Bell's garden, her ponds, her climbing roses, her husband, her marriage, and her cramped trailer.
She allowed Sarah to die, the animal who trusted her, to die. Then turns around and tries to make a buck off of writing her story, glorifying herself as a lover of animals. Please!
On the back cover, Ms. Ellis-Bell claims to be a "respected literary agent, a former professor, and an author." She can claim to be whatever she wants but that don't make her compassionate, a good writer; or anything other than cruel, ignorant and opportunistic.
bg burke
www.drollduck.blogspot.com
 The Real Love For Your Pets.... August 10, 2008
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
Love the book...Problem When I finish Reading. I wish there was more. I dont want to give away the ending but I Cryied..
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