Our little cockatiel flew away last Thursday night...
Dh answered the back door to a visitor and forgetting Maggie was on his shoulder...and shoosh, she was gone (the poor visitor felt terrible as well!)
Maggie was so quick! Yes we did a lot of guilty 'shoulda's' but what good is that after the fact.
Heartsick doesnt even describe it. We were all devastated.
She did this the same time last year... (one would think that all of us including Maggie too would have learned from that) and she survived 7 nights away...
That story is
SO we KNOW that she can make it on her own....
However we walked and walked and walked, looking up into trees, people's yards, in parks calling her name... knowing its probably in vain, but have the 'need' to feel like we have to do this...
Today after 3 nights away... we have her back!
She's flown MILES away! And after having the ad in the paper just one day (had it sheduled for all week and the next week if we had to..) we got a call!
I knew she'd be hungry by now... and today its hailed TWICE and poured in between spats of sunshine - she'd HATE the coldness and wet and to be hit by hailstones!
And so with that in mind and in true form under the circumstances, she landed wearily on a clothesline, the man of the house noticed her and went outside - she flew to his shoulder for help. He fed her some bread and said she was very hungry. He tried to shut her in his shed while he searched what to do and everytime he went to leave she squawked or flew to him... so she just stayed on his shoulder even outside. He looked in the paper and there was the ad!
Well we are overjoyed! Can you imagine... TWICE we have gotten her back... (yeah we hear you...'clip her wings'... thats hard.. she already has deformed feet, it feels awful hobbling her more)
When Paige and I arrived at his house... it was farmhouse-like with chooks running around the yard - lots of foliage and down in a gully - I can see why she picked that house to land and ask for help!
We are so thankful. How she didnt get taken by a hawk, butcher bird or feral cat is beyond us as all three have had a go at her in our very own backyard!
As soon as we got her home, I fed her and she was SO hungry, here she's just finishing up eating furiously.....
She ate and ate and made funny little comfort/relief noises as if to say 'ooh ooh ooh..num-num-num...thank goodness' (not sure if there is any audio with this) She looks so exhausted, and I could see this around her eyes.
Once she'd finished she sat on my shoulder as I watched the tv...and tucked her beak under her wing and fell asleep. To think of all the walking and calling we did... in totally the wrong direction and certainly not as far as she travelled!
Nevertheless....how lucky we are.
She's an amazing little bird.
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