A common saying is that a dog is a man’s best friend. However, it’s not typical to hear that a bird is a women’s best friend. This is the case for freshman Angelina Malashiy and her cockatiel Jojo.

While a dog owner might play fetch to bond with their pet, Malashiy lays and cuddles with her cockatiel.

“Usually he’ll sit on my shoulder and nuzzle the inside of my nose. He’ll just sit there on my eye and make himself at peace,” Malashiy said.

Besides cuddling [the cockatiel], the two enjoy showering together.

“[My bird and I] shower together. I have a special pole for him and he’ll just sit there,” Malashiy said.

Over the course of time, their trusting bond has grown stronger to the point where Malashiy would take a bullet for him.

“Of course I would [take a bullet for him]. I talk to him every day and I’ll tell him my problems [because] I feel like he listens. If something happened to him, I’d feel really sad. He’s my special child,” Malashiy said.

Being around this cockatiel every day, Jojo, Malashiy’s bird, has picked up on words and sounds that Malashiy has used in the past.

“He’ll sometimes speak and say bad words that I say when something happens or he’ll say hello in Russian. When I whistle, he whistles back to me,” Malashiy said.

In any relationship you come across, there is typically an argument bound to happen. For Malashiy and Jojo, it’s no different.

“He likes to chew on things he knows he’s not supposed to chew on like wires, or he’ll throw his food. Whenever he’s chewing wires he’ll come down from his cage and I’ll sit there. As soon as I stand up and call his name, he’ll instantly fly back to his cage and get up. Then he gets mad at me, like he won’t talk to me and he won’t let me pet him,” Malashiy said.

Even through all the fights, it was still worth it. After several calls and attempts in different locations, Malashiy and her family finally found the perfect cockatiel for them.

“We were looking for a cockatiel and they had some in Sylvia’s Pet Store, but we couldn’t find the right one. They looked like they weren’t okay. We were calling and no one had a cockatiel until we called [a place in] Front Royal. They were like, ‘We have a bird, he was born in October and he had just turned a year old.’ We found a picture and he didn’t look that okay but we still drove there at around 7:00 p.m. and we were like, ‘Okay, we’re getting a bird,’” Malashiy said.

Instantly, when she saw the bird sitting alone with nobody to play with, Malashiy knew he was the one.

“When I first went to the pet store, he was by himself, [and] he didn’t have anyone to play with. He was just sitting by himself. There were birds on the other side and they were acting really strange, they were tripping a lot, they were making a lot of noise and he was just sitting there. He was so quiet sitting there, looking around and when I made eye contact with him I was like, ‘Okay we need to get this bird,’” Malashiy said.