PET-LOVING pensioner Gladys Small doesn't have a minute's peace.

Her home in Accrington Road, Burnley, is filled with the sound of a chattering five year old.

But Mrs Small, who is 81, wouldn't swap her noisy blue-eyed boy Joey for the world.

Budgerigar Joey talks from the moment he opens his eyes, asks what's for breakfast and carries on until evening when the conversation turns to bedtime.

Mrs Small said: "He never stops. Sometimes he'll go on for 20 minutes at a time. I can't hear the television for him."

His elderly feathered friend, 12-year-old Cheeky, doesn't talk - not that she could get a word in.

She's got past flying, and she's not too good on her legs either, so Joey sees it as his job to keep her up to date with his latest tit-bits.

Mrs Small added: "They are great companions, and they are no trouble at all. They get on very well with each other, and with my two little puppies.

"We're never apart, even on holidays, and it's lovely."

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