Elizabeth woman finds missing pet galah, only to realise it’s not hers when it starts talking

You’d have thought Maureen Gill would have been happy to hear her pet speak to her 20 years after it went missing. There was just one small problem.

When the pet galah in Maureen Gill’s home asked “How are you doing?” she knew it wasn’t hers.

The pink and grey bird with plenty of attitude also likes to make zipping noises, greet her dog Ted and shred tea bags.

Twenty years on, Ms Gill is searching for the bird’s real owner, whose name he likes to sing whenever a Toyota commercial comes on TV.

“There’s a commercial, I think its a Toyota one, where there’s a knock on the door and then the bell rings and you see a dog jump up and down behind the glass and (when he sees it) he starts calling this man’s name, excited, you know, he’s jumping up and down on the perch so he hasn’t forgotten him,” she said.

“He’s also picked up a few things from here, like to my dog I used to say, ‘come on Ted,’ and he’ll say ‘come on Ted’ too and next door they have a little dog so when they come in, he says ‘hello Ted’ because he thinks it’s mine.

Maureen Gill and her talking galah. Picture: Russell Millard Photography

“When I pick up my bag – and I didn’t teach him this – he makes the zipping noise exactly so that’s another thing he does.

“And he’s a real good paper shredder. Dr. Harry on the television said if you’ve got a big bird in a cage, you must give it stick or paper so when I have my tea bags, I put them in a container and he picks at the outer case so he’s not bored.”

The talking bird came to live with Ms Gill after her (non-talking bird) went missing and she got a reply to an ad she put out out about her own pet galah.

“I put out flyers and an advert in the Messenger newspaper, a few days later the lady rang up from Craigmore and she said, ‘There’s a galah trying to get water out of our pool, I think its yours’.

“So my husband and I went up and fetched it and through the first day or two, it didn’t say anything.

“So we thought it was ours and then all of a sudden he said, ‘How are you doing?’` – I nearly died.”

Now in her 80s, Ms Gill wants to make sure the bird has someone to look after him before she passes.

“I really love him now and would hate to not have anyone look after him,” she said.

“I think he’d be better off with the one that loved him and taught him to say a lot first.”

For Ms Gill to find his owner, they would have to confirm the galah’s name as well as the man’s name.

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Originally published as Elizabeth woman finds missing pet galah, only to realise it’s not hers when it starts talking