It is sort of a long story Shez.
I was renting a house overlooking the sea when Alex and I got together. About a week after Alex arrived, I was informed by the owner of the house that Alex was not welcome. It was devastating news and in a knee - jerk reaction, I told the owner that if Alex was not welcome, I no longer felt welcome either and gave notice. So suddenly, neither of us had a home (but Alex had to be out pretty much straight away, while I had a month's notice to wait out).
During the next few days, I spoke to every estate agent in our town and the story was initially always the same. Folks renting out their properties, did not want a "pirate parrot" in the house.
We live in Mossel Bay, which is an extremely popular place to live. Most homes are seriously upmarket and owner who rent out have lists of rules the tenant has to abide by.
By a stroke of luck, I came across the owner of 5 apartments, snuggled away in a building right next to my work. I spoke to owner about Alex (thinking at that stage that it would be a temporary solution during the month that I was "serving" out). I had a carpenter make various pieces of "jungle gym" type wooden stands for the apartment and Alex seemed to settle in very well. A huge, huge advantage was that my business was literally a minute walk away and as I work for myself, I was free (for the most part) to go and collect Alex for outing as often as I felt the need.
And so began out 3 outings every day. Each is around 2 hours, which makes for some 6 hours of absolutely one - one time for us daily.
As life would have it, a week after Alex moved into the apartment, a friend of mine asked if I would stay in and take care of his house. He was moving in with his girl friend, but did not want to trust his (beautiful) garden and home to renters he did not know.
I was told though that he had difficult neighbours, who would complain if Alex was noisy. The fact that his house is a fair drive from my business, also meant that I would not be able to spend as much time with Alex should he have moved in with me, so I took the house offer, considering it to be temporary and Alex stayed in his apartment, with me considering that to be temporary.
With the passing of weeks though, Alex appeared relaxed and settled into our routine of me collecting him 3 time a day. He has a view of the ocean from his lounge window and watches people swimming and sunbathing from a long perch in from of the window, so is kept entertained when I am not around. He has never been caged and can move throughout the apartment on the various pieces of jungle gum so can move to wherever he chooses to, whenever he wants to.
And I suppose the rest is history. Alex loves our outings, which we would not be able to do as frequently daily or for as long a period, if he lived elsewhere.
I know this sounds crazy, but after a week or so, I began viewing the apartment as his. Everything was set up for him and not for a person and as he seems happy and content, everything has remained the same. For 10 years now.
The though of it being different, seems absolutely weird to me now.