Chris was invited to appear on CBS' Early Show again yesterday morning. The segment was with CBS' veterinarian correspondent Dr. Debbye Turner Bell answering viewer questions. This was Chris' third time being invited to the Early Show.
Chris knows the deal now...he was excited from the moment I lifted his cover in the morning. I think he knew something exciting was happening because I don't usually get up at 6:30 am on a Saturday, so by the time I uncovered him he must have suspected this was an adventure day. He came right out of his cage and he even bowed his head so I could put his sweater on even though he doesn't like wearing a sweater. And, he listened to me and stayed quiet so we wouldn't disturb Holly, who was still sleeping. He also had gotten a bath and blow dry the night before, which is part of his modeling prep routine, so he was in his professional mode right off the bat.
CBS sent a car for us and we arrived at the studio in plenty of time for Chris to have a little snack from the craft table and for Chris to shoot a live promo for his segment. An adorable cat and dog from The Humane Society of New York (who are up for adoption) arrived to appear on the segment as well and we all hung out in a conference room waiting for our air time. When it's a few minutes before our segment they always take us through a series of what I'll call 'holding areas' and then we go onto the set. At lot of people pass through the holding areas so Chris ends up getting a lot of attention, photos, etc. Sometimes he picks one girl to flirt with and today he picked a pretty, young blond intern. He whistled at her and did a dance for her while holding his own leash in his beak. All he needed was a pole and I could have sold tickets!
The CBS Early Show set is really cool, because there are several different area for the different segments in one huge room and they just move the cameras around from spot to spot, so today there was as chef cooking food in one area, preparing for his live segment, and a woman doing a cleaning products segment and us waiting for the pet segment, and the anchors on camera, all simultaneously. We can only talk during commercial because everything is live. Chris and I have been to news shows where he goes into a locked broadcasting room with the correspondent and I can only see him on a monitor which makes me very nervous, or where I'm pretty far from him in the same room, but CBS has the pet people stand right off camera just a few feet from our pets, which is much better. Because everything is live the segments are timed to the second so there is always a chance part of the segment will go over so another part has to be cut. Unfortunately, our segment ran over and since Chris was the last pet in the segment he got cut. But, Dr. Turner Bell didn't want Chris to be left out so she took us over to where CBS' Broadcast Live webcam was shooting and she went on with him and talked about parrots for 5 - 10 minutes live on the internet. Dr. Turner Bell knows a lot about birds and she gave some great advice about owning parrots. Chris was such a good boy and a perfect model. If only he were such an angel at home! If/when they post a link to the web segment on their web site I'll try to upload it here.
After Chris finished shooting they took us home in a car service and the birdstar and I went back to bed for much needed naps. Later I went out and got Chris & Holly a special treat of frozen yogurt. All in all, Chris had a pretty fun day! And, we took a souvenir photo of Chris with Dr. Turner Bell.
Chris with Dr. Debbye Turner Bell at CBS
