Beware of Squealing Parrots
Love cheat girlfriend rumbled by Ziggy, the talking parrot
THERE were, to coin a phrase, three of them in the relationship - plus a parrot called Ziggy.
For Chris Taylor, however, the only cloud on his horizon was that his girlfriend did not share his fondness for the eight-year-old African grey he had bought as a chick.
But if relations between Suzy Collins and Ziggy were always on the cool side, they are now deep frozen after the parrot's mimicry revealed the existence of Ms Collins's secret lover, known only as Gary.
At first, 30-year-old Mr Taylor was amused when Ziggy started screeching "Hiya, Gary" every time it heard Ms Collins's mobile phone ring. But the truth finally dawned as the couple snuggled up on the sofa in their flat and Ziggy blurted out, "I love you, Gary" in her voice.
Ms Collins (25) broke down in tears and confessed to having a four-month fling with a former colleague. Her confession not only ended their two-year relationship but also led Mr Taylor to parting with his pet because it kept repeating the offending name. He said yesterday: "I wasn't sorry to see the back of Suzy after what she did but it really broke my heart to let Ziggy go. "I've lost my girlfriend and my best mate at the same time. I didn't want to believe it but when Ziggy said, 'I love you, Gary' in Suzy's voice, it sent a chill down my spine."
Mr Taylor, a computer programmer, named the parrot after David Bowie's alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, and his pet learned to reproduce the line "Put on your red shoes and dance the blues!" from the Bowie song Let's Dance.
But Ziggy failed to impress Ms Collins when she moved in to Mr Taylor's Leeds flat a year ago. "At first, she didn't mind me having one but over time she began to resent the time we spent together. She used to say I spent more time talking to Ziggy than I did to her."
He also claimed Ms Collins had told him she had visited the flat with Gary when only the bird was in. "It makes my stomach churn to think about what he might have seen or heard them doing." (© Daily Telegraph, London)
