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Lost Bare-Eyed Cockatoo - Sherman Oaks, CA

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Now it is my turn to go through this agony.

 

Lost bare-eyed cockatoo. My boy flew past me this morning while I was cleaning his cage.

 

A gust of wind rustled the newspapers and out he went. He has NEVER done this before and it just goes to show that even if you think your bird will stay put because he always has, he may some day not.

 

He was exceptionally jumpy this morning - flying from one spot to the next to the next within the house. When I rolled his cage outside, as I do every morning, he calmed down some. But then I opened the door (as I have a hundred or two-hundred times before) to change his paper and feed him, and something scared him and he was gone, flying past me in the tiniest of spaces between my body and the cage door, JUST LIKE THAT.

 

You know, just last night I was typing a response to user "DavidH" on this forum regarding his lost bird post, and thought, "I should pre-make flyers just in case this ever happens to me." Now I feel sick about this.

 

My sweet boy was last seen at Van Nuys Blvd and Magnolia Blvd in Sherman Oaks, CA on Nov 10, 2010 at 9 AM.

 

Says "Hi, baby!" when nervous.

Reward.

 

Call day or night xxx-xxx-xxxx. [Edited to remove phone number now that he is found.]

 

Many thanks.

Edited by >^..^<
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Birdnut Newbie

Birdnut

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I will hold your Baby in my thoughts today. I will be stopping by the church to drop this prayer into the Miracle Jar, as I always do for these lost ones.

 

Everybody, hug your birdies today. I think the idea of having fliers pre-prepared is actually a pretty good one.

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Hi, Everyone,

 

My 'Too is home. I will write more tomorrow after I've regained my mind (hahahahaha) but for now just wanted to let you all know that he is home, sleeping and comfy.

 

Real quick, he did something very funny that he's never done to me before. The people who found him said that he took to the wife/mom and was mostly hanging out with her. At one point, after he'd been there many hours, he bit the (((beep))) out of her, drawing blood and all, and then sweetly asked her, "Are you okay?"

 

Anyway I will write more tomorrow. For now, please, everyone, if this ever happens to you, get on it right away, take time off work if you are able, go with minimal sleep, and keep talking to people you see in the street, and keep moving forward. I firmly believe that because I kept going even when I was convinced CONVINCED convinced that I'd never see him again, that that is how I came to get him back home.

 

(I dreamed of him last night saying he was thirsty, by the way, and that he really wants some of his chopped greens. Well, today when I found the people who had him, the people proudly told me they had given him peanuts, and offered me the rest of the bag to take home with me that they had bought. Um, salted! HAHAHAH! The food he had been given was salted peanuts. Greaaaaat! But really, no matter, as he did have access to water and those people did their best, and for that I will be ever-grateful.)

 

Goodnight, all. I'm going to do as my bird is doing and go to beddy.

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Hiyas, everyone,

 

So here goes. I lost him on truly the windiest day in L. A. in many many moons. I saw him soar over the house and over the huge tall palm tree and then lost sight of him. The last I saw him, he was headed SW.

 

I have recently joined a group of people who do animal rescue work. Well, wouldn't you know my very first assignment was THAT DAY, the very day my 'Too escaped. I soooooooooo wanted to cancel, but that day I was due to drive to an animal shelter 45 miles away, pick up seven dogs with another lady, and drive them to another location a good hour away. Well, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I was told to be there at 11 AM and not be late, and got there at 10:45 (in spite of mapquest's incorrect directions!) and figured I'd be loading the dogs into their crates and into my car and off to the next locale. Nope.

 

I was at the shelter until 2:30!!! Everything that was supposed to have been done ahead of time had not been. Paperwork was lost. Vaccine records hadn't been pre-printed. On and on. And the whole time, here I am with this rich and famous actress who looks BEAUTIFUL in her $650 jeans and $100 mascara and there I am bawling on and off and looking like death warmed over.

 

And no matter how many times I offered to help, "Oh, no, I'll do that as soon as I get off the phone with my mother/son/husband/goodfriend/blahblahblah." I was out of my mind worried about my own bird, and here I am helping these dogs. And don't get me wrong - I am hugely thrilled that these dogs that were to be put to death that day now have a home in Arizona. But gosh, what happened to the whole thing taking around two hours from the time I left home to the time I got back home? It was really hard to do the right thing and keep my butt there while all around me was a whirlwind of chaos, lemme tell ya.

 

So six-and-a-half hours later I pulled up in front of my home, absolutely bedraggled emotionally, and ran over to my boy's cage, hoping against hope that my having left the door open with his favorite foods in the bowl would have enticed him to come home. Nope. I re-felt the agony of that morning then fed my dogs and jumped into the car, calling one friend after another for help on making a flier. When I finally got to a good friend of mine's house to make the flier on his computer, what I got was a glare. "If you'd gotten his wings clipped, blah blah blah.." Okay, please come here so I can .. nebbermind.

 

So I did the flier, printed out a zillion or so, and drove back to my neighborhood. Since I'd last seen him heading SW, I went to that part of my neighborhood and started posting the fliers. Have any of you ever done this?? It's really hard to decide just how many to put up, exactly where, and even if you should use up more tape but go faster by using two long pieces of tape versus four short pieces. Anyway, I put up fliers in the cold and wind (by then it was night time) until 1:30 AM. People honked at me, yelled at me ("What are you doing putting fliers on the pole near my house!? That makes the neighborhood look ugly!"), and I swear, tried to run me down (just kidding - sort of).

 

I set my alarm for 6 AM and of course, it didn't go off. Something is wrong with my BlackBerry and now suddenly the alarm isn't working properly. Great! Of all days!

 

So now it's Thursday, and it's Veterans' Day. And guess what? The SPCA was closed. I could not believe that on the first day that I need the SPCA, they are closed. Well, I drove up there anyway, figuring if there was an employee working that maybe they'd see me and take pity on me and help me by taking my information. Sure enough, someone opened the door and invited me in.

 

So I go in and tell them why I'm there and give them one of my fliers along with a couple of pictures, and tell them my story. They ask me where I live and what kind of bird it is. "Oh, a gentleman just called a half-hour ago. We don't usually answer the phone on holidays but we accidentally picked that call up." Turns out a man called, said he had found a bird the day before, and wondered if anyone had called.

 

The SPCA employee did her best to get the man to bring the bird in, but he refused, saying that he thought the SPCA would either give the bird to just anyone, or sell it to make money for the SPCA! So he refused to bring the bird in or leave his phone number, but did in the course of the conversation reveal that he was living in an apartment building in Sherman Oaks (where I live), and that was that. Wow! I could not believe it. Could this get any stranger!?

 

Now, on top of all that, I was due to start a new job on Thursday at 5 PM doing simple data entry. (It has been YEARS since I've been in someone else's employ. Now I'm to start a new job, and all I know is my bird is nearby, and I have to go to a new job.) I desperately need this job, and yet I realized that I was so very close to finding my bird, and that if I stopped to go to work for a shift, I may lose him forever. I mean, the people could fall in love with him and keep him, or accidentally kill him (non-stick cookware, air fresheners, etc were coming to mind), or accidentally open a window or door and he might escape. No, I had to call my new boss and ask to postpone my start date. Guess what? He said ok! I was so lucky that the new boss has dogs and he knew the agony of a lost pet and allowed me to keep looking.

 

I then went to each apartment building in my neighborhood (I live in a very densely-populated area) and put up fliers near the mailboxes of each apartment building. By the way, do you know how hard it is these days to gain entry to a locked apartment building that you are not a resident of!?

 

Around 5:15, 15 minutes after I was due to have started my new job, a man saw me putting up a flier and asked me, rather gruffly, "What are you doing!?" I said that I had lost my bird, and was just putting up this flier on this pole. He said, "What kind of bird?", then, "What color? How big?" Then after I'd answered, "My wife has him. Follow me." WHAT?!

 

THE NICEST FAMILY had found him and brought him into their home about five hours after he'd escaped. He had NOT slept out in the wind and cold like I'd feared, and he certainly had not starved. (They'd driven to PETCO to ask what food to feed this kind of bird and the employees there told them "Almonds and peanuts are good for those kind of birds." So this family stopped at the grocery and bought my 'Too his own huge bags of salted peanuts and salted almonds! How nice of them! HAHAHAHA!)

 

I was almost scared to look once I was in this family's apartment. What if it was another cockatoo? What if it was not a cockatoo at all? What if it was a cockatoo but was someone else's? I was too scared to even look, but I glanced over, and there he was, perched atop their fish tank. (It had a fancy wooden cover that he was just hanging out on.) I could not believe it was him, and that he was just hanging out, being his usual self, seemingly quite at home with this family with two small boys and everything. :-)

 

Thank you, thank you, everyone who offered kind words of encouragement. Just knowing there are people on this board rooting for me was very helpful when I was tired and cold and feeling hopeless. So to those of you who took a few moments to write a message of hope, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

So there you go - I got him back and I will not make that mistake again. And, since some of my friends have asked, no, I won't be clipping his wings. :)

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KimKim,

 

I was thinking he stepped up on the stick for them when he was outside because he was totally freaked out, and just defaulted to what he knew he was supposed to do. But the "Are you ok?" thing totally surprised me! Course, perhaps I'd heard it before but just assumed it was Miss Blabberchops (said affectionately!) The Grey.

 

Last night I went 'round and took DOWN all the posters I'd put UP. It took a couple of hours and was infinitely more pleasurable than the other way 'round, that's for sure.

 

One more thing, by the way. I really think that it is wise to at least pre-make the flier on your computer just in case this ever happens to you. (And trust me, I NEVER thought I'd lose a bird.) The stress of having to design a flier on the computer and get the thing to print out and then make multiple copies was HUGE and even if I'd just had the first step done, of having the flier already designed and stored as a document file on the computer, that would have knocked off a lot of time that I spent that I could have been outside looking, and it would have lessened the stress considerably. Anyway, just a suggestion of what would have made my life easier at the time. (Another reason to pre-design a flier is because even as I was out there posting them that dreadful first night, I realized that my flier had the word "parrot" and what do most people think of as a parrot? A GREEN bird. So there I was handwriting "ALL WHITE" on each flier. What a pain. So had I had the flier pre-designed, I'd not likely have forgotten to include a physical description of my bird.)

 

Lastly, the fact that I included "Says 'Hi, Baby!' when nervous" on the flier is what cinched it for the person who found him. This man was a man of high ethics and told me many a time that he was determined that the bird would be returned ONLY to the owner, and not given over to just anyone. The fact that I included his most commonly repeated phrase, and my phone number, assured him that he was indeed returning the found bird to his owner. (Whew!)

 

Thanks again, everyone. And I sincerely hope none of you has to go through this EVER, but if you do, I hope my posts are helpful.

 

>^..^<

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Well, Karcar, if you're ever in Los Angeles, or live here, you're welcome to come on by and visit. He's posed for a picture today with a messy beak looking all cute, and if and when I can figure such things out, I'll put his picture up on this thread.

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