Cindy Ledbetter

Cindy Ledbetter was a housewife from Cicero, Illinois, where she lived her husband, Ed and their two children. In 1992, she inherited Ptolemy III, her late grandmother's beloved scarlet macaw, after his caretaker, Cindy's cousin Benjamin Hatcher, died himself.

Ledbetter and her family weren't as fond of the bird as Benjamin had been. They never learned of his ability to read and spot stock trends. During his brief three-month stay with them, were considerably less attentive to Ptolemy than Ben Hatcher had been. She changed the newspaper daily, but then reduced it to changing it once a week. Further, Ledbetter's children avoided bathing Ptolemy, especially after Mitch Lebetter, age 10, yanked on Ptolemy's tail, and Ptolemy bit him in response. They paid no attention to his schedule. Moreover, the Ledbetters lined his cage with a tabloid called The Nation's Eye, which, unknown to them, caused him anxiety. He read it anyway, because he was desperate to read.

After he'd been with the Ledbetters for three months, Cindy's friend Kathy Plotkin agreed to watch Ptolemy for a few days. He died in Plotkin's care.