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Take Extra Care as Bird Owners

As owners of pets that can fly faster than we can run, we have the responsibility to take extra caution in their care.  This is a group of true short stories of things that can happen and are to be used as a warning…

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A parrot owner loves his Amazon, and he knows that the bird would never leave him because that love is returned.  The owner walks down the street with his bird on his shoulder and people are used to seeing them together.

One day, something startles the bird and, having never been clipped, he rises high into the air, flapping furiously.  The owner chases after his bird, calling loudly, but quickly loses sight of his frightened friend.  Distraught, the owner calls every pet shop, shelter and veterinarian clinic in the phone book and starts to put out flyers.  A few days later, he starts to lose hope.

The Amazon, on his own for the first time, has flown quite a distance and has no idea where he is.  He cannot see or hear his owner any more and isn’t sure what to do.  Perhaps he waited patiently for his owner to come and get him – after all, his owner usually comes and gets him when he flies into a different room at home.

After a few days, the bird is getting very hungry and anxious that his owner has not come.  When he looks down, he sees a number of people standing in line and entering a large, noisy room (a bus).  He pulls together all of his courage and, having been taught to trust humans, he flies down and lands on the shoulder of a very startled woman.  Luckily, she doesn’t panic and instead, with the urging of the bus driver, walks into the bus.  The driver takes the bird and places it beside him until he gets back to the terminal.  There, he takes the Amazon inside and begins making calls.

The owner gets his much-awaited call and rushes down to claim his friend.  This is one bird who never again goes past a door with unclipped wings and an owner who is much wiser…

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A lady’s bird escapes and she phones around to alert the shelters and veterinary clinics.  She makes up flyers to staple to poles in and around her neighbourhood.  Then she heads out to talk to people in pet shops.  When she is talking to one of the employees, telling her about the violet budgie she lost who is a wonderful talker, the girl begins to look quite upset.  The employee tells her about a woman who came in and bought a cage with all the supplies for a budgie.  She told the girl that she had found a little purple budgie and that it even talked.  When the girl offered to take her name and phone number in case the owner came in looking for the bird, the woman told her that the owner should have taken better care not to lose the bird and didn’t deserve to have it, then hurriedly left.  Not all birds are returned…

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A young boy is going on vacation with his parents and places his bird in the home of a neighbour for bird-sitting.  The neighbours are happy to help out, but they have forgotten the bucket of water they left in the basement.  The bird is free-flying and the basement door is left open.  Not all birds survive…

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The friends of a child are visiting and playing video games on the television.  Their bird likes to sit on top of the set and make the game sounds while they play.  One of the children jumps up and runs out the door to go home.  No one can stop the bird who is following the child and it escapes into the outdoors.  It can happen in unexpected ways by people who are not part of our family…

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An owner likes to put her cage with two birds out on her balcony for fresh air and has done so regularly for years.  One day some pigeons decide to land on her balcony and knock over the cage.  The door flies open and her two birds fly off.  One heads off into the distance and the other flies across the parkette to another apartment building and lands on a balcony a few floors lower.  The owner is able to trace the apartment and reclaim one of her birds, but the other is lost for good.  Sometimes you have a little luck….

It’s a lovely day so a young child decides to carry the bird and cage out into the back yard to get some fresh air and sunshine.  While chatting to the bird as she carries the cage, the bottom falls off the cage.  The bird drops through the bottom and is gone in a flash.  One of the clips had been improperly secured.  It was an oversight…

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A lady is doing laundry and it’s such a bright sunny day she decides to hang out the clothes.  She bends over and picks up her laundry basket and carries it outside.  As she bends over to put down the basket, her bird flies over her head and is gone.  She hadn’t noticed the light weight of her pet hanging on the back of her sweater…

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A woman has owned her Quaker for a few years and it has always flown free in her home.  One day her roommate opens the door unexpectedly and the bird squeezes through to freedom.  The woman is distraught and goes through all the usual motions of phone calls and flyers.  She is devastated that her pet is lost and keenly worried since the weather is bad and getting worse.  After a few days, when she is losing hope, she gets a phone call answering one of her flyers.  Her darling pet spotted a lady standing in the open doorway of her house and swooped inside.  He managed to fly directly to the kitchen and made a perfect landing beside the husband’s cereal bowl.  The poor man was rather shocked when this strange creature started helping himself to breakfast.  Her bird was returned…

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Always exercise caution around your birds, and check your equipment and surroundings regularly. None of these people thought this could happen to them.  Some of them got their birds returned. 

Miracles do happen… but don’t count on them. 

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