Monday, April 18, 2005

New Addition to Our Family


He came from out of no where. Swooping down, nearly settling on my head, then making a beeline for the nearest tree. His shrieks and squawks echoing in the early evening air. He drew the attention of Jack, our American Eskimo dog and from that moment on, his outdoor ritual was broken. No longer did Jack dream about trees and fence posts, instead his mind was on the brightly colored noisy thing in the tree just above his head.

The parrot seemed friendly enough. He seemed about as interested in us as we were in it. I called out to my husband, who brought the camera. We managed to get quite a few shots, until the bird flew down and rested upon our back fence.

I wondered if it were hungry, then wondered what I had in the house that he could possibly eat. I flashed upon a bag of dry dogfood that Jack doesn't eat and an "ah ha" moment was born. I hurried inside and brought out a handful of dry dogfood and a little bowl of water. If the bird could have spoken, he'd have given me his heartfelt thanks. He ate as if he were starving and drank water like he hadn't seen it in days.

He was very friendly and even nibbled upon my husband's finger at one point. Howver, any attempt we made to catch it was neatly adverted. He sidestepped and hopped away just far enough to stay out of reach.

It grew late and the sky darkened. We could no longer see the parrot as it sat just on the other side of our fence in a neighbor's tree. We went inside, saddened by the fact that we would no longer see our little friend. My husband did some research on the web, with the pictures he took and discovered our visitor had been a Sun Conure.

In the morning, once again, outside to give Jack a reprieve, I heard a familiar screech. Looking around, there he was, sitting on the neighbor's clothesline. Excited, I hurried to call my husband on the phone to tell him that the parrot was still around. Hearing my voice, the parrot flew into our yard and followed me to the back patio. He sat on a plant stand while I hurried to get him some more dry dog food and a bowl of water.

Pondering what to do next, my husband suggested I go out and get a cage. So, I did. Hurrying to the pet store within a mile of our home, I purchased a cage and a bag of parrot/conure food. At home, I stepped outside to find the parrot sitting on our gutters above the back door. I put the dry dog food away and poured a small portion of the new food into my hand. It had him intrigued and he came to investigate. With a bit of coaxing and some quickness on my part, the Sun Conure was soon happily munching away on his new food in his new cage.

Determined to find his owner, we checked newspaper lost & found ads, the internet, vets and animal/bird hospitals, and even pet stores. No one reported a missing Sun Conure. We've taken a liking to the little fella and he's more than happy to make his home here with us. Already he's settled into our routine and seems to enjoy our company.

We've named him Bailey. And Bailey has a home.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Vicki, congratulations on your new "baby" and welcome to the wonderful world of birds! I was utterly captivated by your rendition of how Bailey came to your home.

fin said...

Did anyone "scan" the dog and look for microchips?

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