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nter Keith Bruno’s world and you’re surrounded by the tools of the commercial fisherman’s trade: Nets, braided twine, boats, fillet knives. There is also the menagerie. The Anatolian shepherd. The orange cat waiting for bits of fish. There are a bunch of hens. A turquoise peacock. And now, a large red macaw.

Not just any macaw. Val is a rescue macaw. Just as many a dog in Oriental is a rescue dog, whose owners found a spot for them in their homes and hearts, that’s also the case with Val.

For Keith Bruno, Val represents the reward of a long-running search. That story, and the story of “Val” settling in and overcoming her rough life before the Brunos, makes the big red macaw Miss April – Pet of The Month.

Keith’s world. The owner of Endurance Seafood flanked by Val the macaw and a feline helper

Val isn’t Keith Bruno’s first exotic bird. About 10 years ago, he had a Moluccan Cockatoo. The Bruno family loved the pink-tinged bird but it was, he says, ““very, very demanding”. No amount of attention was ever enough in its eyes. It punctured the sheet over its cage in order to spy on the family. It bit the family dog.

Keith dreamed of a calmer experience with a more social macaw, but the price tag was high. A prime macaw can fetch upward of two thousand dollars. He stuck it out with the cockatoo until one day that bird became ill.

Keith took it to a vet who was just going to “keep it overnight”. Four or 5 days passed, with the cockatoo even on a feeding tube. The bird didn’t get better.

In the end, as Keith puts it, he “got a bill for $2,500 and a box with a dead bird in it.” The bird was buried in the back yard, and with it, Keith’s dream of big bird ownership.

Val, a Green-winged macaw

Flash forward to this winter when Keith found an on-line ad for a “cheap” macaw. Keith called the owner who said that bird “really had to find a new home”. Keith drove out for a look and met “Angelina”, a large, 2-year old red bird that was, he says, in a pitiful state.

While macaws are a social breed by nature, this one had been kept alone in a tiny room. Worse, Keith says, she had “no tail feathers, a scarred face and a terrible shake”. Keith says the seller came clean. It turned out that his dog, a Belgian Shepard, had “got hold of it”.

The price was right, though, and Keith says he thought that “we could get past” her traumatized condition. He had his dream bird, and brought her home.

That was Valentines day. “How many people get a big red bird on Valentine’s Day?”, Keith asks. With a nod to that day, “Angelina” was renamed Val.

Once the the trembling bird arrived in her new home in Oriental, her rehab began. First up – a combination of food, and family.

Table heads: Keith and Val demonstrate their respective seats at the Bruno dinner table

Social creatures, macaws enjoy interaction with humans. With that in mind, the Brunos and Val started taking their meals together. “She eats with us” Keith says, “right behind my chair”.

For breakfast — early, given Keith’s hours out on the water — Val eats fruit, nuts and bird mix. After Keith returns from his morning fishing, Val gets a feeding of yogurt bites, walnuts and Brazil nuts. At dinner, again perched behind the family table, she “has whatever we have,” Keith says. It could be carrots. It could be french fries. It could be cooked red drum, caught earlier in the day on Keith’s boat.

Tastes Like Chicken

Val has also been known to “eat chicken right off the bone.” which Keith allows is “sort of weird,” considering their proximity in the animal kingdom. But with Val, it’s just a matter of being an omnivore.

“She’s sort of like a buzzard” Keith notes. “She’ll eat everything.”

Val hanging out with Keith

Another big part of Val’s rehab has been exercise.

When the previous owner’s dog attacked Val, her wings were damaged, the undersides were raw, the feather missing. To build muscle — and trust — Keith has trained Val to hold out her wings for a good scratching. During the wing-scatching sessions Val so enjoys, Keith asks for the left, then right wing. Slowly, Val is learning “left” and “right”.

“Hello, Endurance Seafood….”: Val is presently mastering the “hello” bit

Few things please Val as much as a good upside-down belly rub

Still, Val is a powerful bird. Especially her beak.

In the wild, macaws use their massive bills to crack open thick-shelled nuts and seeds. Trouble is, around humans, a threatened or scared macaw can turn that beak into a weapon. According to Keith, she could “snap a broom handle with it”.

Hence the No Shoulder rule.

Watch that beak

While it’s cool for a pirate to strut around with a parrot on his shoulder, Keith prohibits shoulder rides. That would allow her eye to be above his, a sign of dominance in the bird world.

Val puts her beak to another purpose, instead. By their nature, macaws use their beaks to “zipper” their feathers — that is, they smooth the strands that become separated. One of Val’s favorite activities is to groom Keith’s flowing red beard… or give his shirt a gentle nibble.

Now and again a word emerges from that beak. During a recent visit by TownDock.net staff, Keith coaxed a gravelly “hello!” out of the crimson bird.

So will Val steam into the Neuse with Keith in true pirate fashion? Maybe “one day” Keith muses. But not soon. He fears if the bird became disoriented, she might flop overboard. With fishing gear in the water, she’d be nigh impossible to retrieve.

So, for now, man and bird content themselves passing the days ashore one wing scratch, one word, one yogurt bite at a time. But one day, there might be that flash of red out on the waters of the Neuse…

A safe harbor: Val in Keith’s arms

Val’s Bio

Celebrity Pet Most Resembles: Jimmy Durante
Likes: Being scratched under left wing
Dislikes: Strangers
Favorite Song: “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees
Favorite Food: Red fish (cooked), yogurt bites
Secret She Wouldn’t Want Other Birds To Know: Snacking on chicken
Favorite Comeback: “My name’s not Polly, and I’d prefer a yogurt bite to a cracker.”

Know a pet that is a standout? Send in some details and a photo to info@towndock.net. Tell why that pet deserves the coveted TownDock.net Pet of the Month Prize Package --- accolades, a pat on the head (snakes excluded) and a box of Milk Bones ( or snack suitable for the species). We regret that we cannot offer a college scholarship to Pet Of The Month winners. Animals caught near the HarborCam attempting to suck up to the judges will be disqualified.