Pat Balters
Appearances
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
It seems like nobody else has ever seen her or heard her say those kinds of things to you.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
I started to wonder, like, is this the kind of thing a parrot is even capable of? So I decided to check.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
She's basically the world's expert on African gray parrots. So I asked her, have you ever heard of anything like this before?
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
In fact, Irene told me that something kind of similar had happened to her once with this parrot named Alex that she worked with for like decades. Irene told me that whenever Alex would get out of line,
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
And Irene says that a parrot, like Alex or Sadie, probably doesn't know what calm down means, or you'll be okay, Jim.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Which is a big deal for parrots, Irene says, because they're prey. So they're constantly looking out for each other, trying to keep from getting eaten.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Well, I mean, I can't prove that she does the things Jim says she does. But on the other hand, everyone I talk to around Jim says that whatever is happening between them is keeping him from threatening people on the street, from punching dents in people's cars. It's just keeping him a better guy. Yeah. So maybe it doesn't matter.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
So a few months ago, I went to St. Louis because I'd heard this story about a guy who had this pet that basically saved his life. And the pet...
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
is a bird it's about this guy named jim eggers oh you're recording yeah yeah yeah i'm gonna record and in 2005 jim was living by himself in a little apartment in st louis working in a halloween industry it was the winter so jim had just finished up his latest season at the local haunted house i've known the halloween stuff for 19 years what do you do
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
I can scream and, you know, go nuts. Which is kind of a strange gig for a guy like Jim because he has a really hot temper. What's technically your diagnosis?
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
While I was there, he was totally calm. But Jim tells me that once he feels a mood swing start coming on,
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Jim's known around his neighborhood for just losing it from time to time. He shouts at people on the street, punches dents in people's cars. One time he even poured hot coffee from a second-story window onto his neighbor's head. I go off on people, and it's horrible.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Yeah, she said she didn't want me over there anymore. Get out. After that, Jim's life kind of spiraled out of control. He ended up living on the streets for years and just getting angrier and angrier at everyone around him. And then in 2005, which is where our part of the story begins, Jim did something that got him in very serious trouble. Tell me about the archbishop situation.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Okay, as far as the... He'd been reading news reports about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. And for reasons that aren't entirely clear, Jim had become convinced that the local archbishop... Archbishop Raymond Burke.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Jim ended up getting sentenced to a year of probation. Just a few weeks into his probation, something happened that would basically set the story that we're telling about Jim in motion.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
And cats. Guinea pigs and stuff like that. His whole life. Never a bird. But when Jim read about these African gray parrots, he became kind of obsessed with getting one.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
So when the bird shop people came up to Jim and said, we can get you an African gray parrot. And she comes with the cage for $550. Jim thinks to himself, that's like half what I was going to pay. So he says, you know, I'll go ahead and take it. Because that was too good of a deal to pass up. There was a catch, though. The bird wasn't at the shop.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
She was about a foot tall. You want some peanut butter? She had a black beak.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
And as Sadie spent more time with Jim, she learned to say words and phrases. And then one day...
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
So Jim went online and actually found this special kind of cage that you can carry around on your back.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
He even got her registered as a service animal, kind of like a seeing-eye dog.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
And Jim and Sadie had a pretty good situation. When Jim started feeling himself get mad, he'd tell himself, calm down. Sadie would repeat him. But then, one day, a few years ago, Sadie did something that went beyond mimicry.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
A few years ago, Sadie did something that went beyond mimicry. Jim says he doesn't exactly remember the first time it happened.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
thing right now because I'm like blanking out but it probably went something like this Jim's just out in the neighborhood one day he's got Sadie in her little backpack cage and something happens that sets Jim off I don't know a car cuts him off at the crosswalk and immediately Jim starts getting that tingly feeling yeah and then in the split second fraction of a moment before Jim starts to talk himself down like he does calm down Jim calm down he hears calm down Jim
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
From Sadie. Exactly. She says it first? Yeah. Wow. Like she knew what was in his mind or inside him, like before he even did anything. Oh yeah, she knows. She can sense that. How do you suppose that was happening? I don't know.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Which kind of blew my mind. Yeah. But Sadie didn't do it while I was there. So I left Jim this tape recorder and I asked him to try to get something like this on tape. Just so I could prove it to people.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
And Sadie was on there saying all kinds of things, like hello. Hello. Hello. She said her name. Sadie. She said good girl. Good girl. Things that I could imagine Jim saying to her.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Not really. But I thought if it happens as often as Jim says it happens, that someone in his neighborhood must have seen it.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
So I called this woman who runs a coffee shop around the corner from his house, asked her if she'd seen it. She hadn't. Oh. Then I figured I could call the company that runs the buses and the trains that Jim rides every day, thinking that maybe one of their drivers would have seen him get upset about something.
Radiolab
A Flock of Two
Nothing. And then I called Jim's best friend, Larry, and I figured if anyone has seen this, it would be Larry, because he's around them, like, all the time. He hadn't either. So I called Jim to ask if I was, like, missing anybody. He didn't answer, so I left a message. Left another message. Then finally... Hello? Hi, Jim. I got him on the phone. It's Pat again.