Muse Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 Today is exactly three years since I first met Marden. I remember being so depressed going through my OB clinicals and seeing all the women having babies and knowing I could not. It was my husband's idea to get a bird. I had always mentioned wanted one "someday" and he decided that it would fill my need to mother something. And fill it did. The cockatiels I'd fostered and the doves I had were long before I had the Internet and I knew very little compared to what I know now. I dove into information on birds with a passion. These were my babies. I wanted to give them the best I could. He was the center of my life for almost three years. We spent the better part of every day together. And today, the memories came flooding back. I just keep seeing those little dark eyes meet mine, and him literally running across the shallow enclosure to jump on my hand and climb to my shoulder. Love at first sight is not limited to being between humans only. Many days I wake up and look over, expecting to see him sleeping in his cage, and instead I see Megan, alone, sitting on her play stand. My day then starts with a flood of tears. It's hard to believe that a little pound of feathered love could entwine himself so deeply in my heartstrings. We have decided to start a bird rescue. We have talked about it for quite some time. It grew out of the plan to build a flight-worthy size aviary for our own babies. Our train of thought followed these tracks - we planned to have a structure put up, similar to those carport buildings that are extra tall that folks use to shelter their big Class A motorhomes. The plan was to only partially roof it, so that one section was the frame covered in wire mesh. Our original plan was to link it to the house, so the birds could have at-will access to go in and out as they pleased. As discussions went on, we realized with something that big, we'd have room for more then just our small flock. We have rescued many animals over the years. At one point we had six cats and two dogs - all but two of those were dumped near where we lived. And we have taken each one in and given them a loving, permanent home. Why couldn't we do this for birds, too, we thought. In researching 'how-to' plans for aviaries, I ran across a link to the YouTube video of the Grey Aviary at Project Perry. I wasn't so sure I liked the quonset hut style, but it was certainly big enough to fly around in! I sent an email to the founder, Matt Smith, who kindly replied to my questions with an invitation to come and see the facility in person. Last month, we drove up and Matt not only showed us around, but gave us some fantastic tips and information including vendors where we could find the materials. The structure is still in the planning stage and we are playing phone tag with the lawyer to try to get paperwork filed to obtain our 501©3 status as well as incorporating so that the organization can have a legal framework to allow it to continue beyond our time on this earth. We have some small plans for now, and bigger plans for the future. Right now, we are building garden beds so that all birds here will have fresh, wholesome organic food that was raised here at home with absolutely no chemicals at all. We are vermicomposting in each bed using 'worm towers'. We are starting with four raised beds and hope to expand each year. We are also planting fruit trees - a pear, a grove of paw paw trees, a fig tree, and an apple tree for Marden (that was his favorite fruit). My dream is to someday have an onsite vet clinic that will be open to outside business to help support itself and the organization. We have named our endeavor Marden's Ark in honor of our beloved feathered son. We registered the domain "avianrefuge.org" and I have been working many late nights building a small website, as well as a Facebook page. I know this is going to be a lot of work, but work has never scared me. I want to build a place, as Matt has in Virginia, where birds can be birds - flying, spending time in a flock, and interacting on their terms, not those of humans. Those birds at Project Perry seemed so happy. And after the lives of suffering many have endured, they surely deserve that. It gives me a positive outlet to channel all this grief into, and I think it will be an important part of a very slow healing process. I know many of you have done rescue work with parrots, and I welcome any and all bits of advice and wisdom. Thanks to all! Muse (Dee) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michellec Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 I don't have advice, but your post brought me to tears. Your words, love, and plans to honor birds who need refuge in the name of your beloved Marden touched me deeply. I would love to join your Facebook page and hope to follow you as you move forward. God bless you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 I can speak from a rescue/Sanctuary viewpoint. It can be heartbreaking and rewarding at the same time. The stories, baggage and the humans entwined through it all have their own stories. Right now many rescues/Sanctuaries are having great difficulty raising enough funding to continue. That makes for even more birds needing to find a safe place to continue their lives. The one I volunteer for is standing on the edge of that line-feed alone takes over $2000.00 a month and the way our economy is and the lack of volunteers makes for a stressful time right now. None of us have any experience in fundraising and our volunteer who wrote grant applications now has ill elderly family that takes all of her time in another state. So try to make certain you have the ability to keep going once you have begun as we feel the fear and heartbreak of no longer being able to care for those in our hands moving forward. You heart is in the right place and so many birds need help it can be overwhelming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 Bless you.. your giving soul has brought me to tears. I envy your drive and determination. Please let us know how we here at Greyforums can help you.. Where is NC are you, my daughter just moved down there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvparrots Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 Looking forward to following your progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katana600 Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 Your loving tribute to Marden will bring peace to the parrots you are able to take in. It will be the place to watch through the forum. Wishing you all the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danmcq Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 I worked at Mickaboo Bird Rescue in San Jose when I was working up there. Funding was always a number one priority. There is a HUGE need for more due to the large numbers of birds in need by the 1000's each day it seems. It does take a large heart and you become somewhat calloused over time or you would become a non-functional basket case due to the severity of abuse and health issues you constantly see. I have no doubt you could do it and maybe keep it as low cost as possible by limiting the number of birds to your budget as you get it off the ground and only increase birds when your certain you can survive when funds needed for the month are not coming in from external sources. It is great to see you exploring this and truly thinking about stepping up to the plate for these distressed souls in need of a good and safe environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I think Marden would be so pleased with what you are undertaking in building a rescue for birds, what a fitting tribute to his much too short life. I am glad that Matt could give you some help on starting this endeavor of yours and I have been to Project Perry myself though its been several years now and I need to go back for another visit since they have added a conure aviary similar to the one for the greys. I look forward to hearing and seeing more about this project of yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffNOK Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Thank you for this post. Heartbreak and loss can be senseless--but you have decided to turn your sadness into blessing for many others. That takes strength and character and I respect you and your future work. Bless you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kins2321@yahoo.com Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 muse...wish you the best. I am always here to help you. Nancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muse Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 I don't have advice, but your post brought me to tears. Your words, love, and plans to honor birds who need refuge in the name of your beloved Marden touched me deeply. I would love to join your Facebook page and hope to follow you as you move forward. God bless you. Thank you! Sorry it took so long to reply, the last few weeks have been a blur! Our website is http://www.avianrefuge.org and our Facebook page link is on every page, just under the banner. Thank you very much for your kind words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muse Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 (edited) I can speak from a rescue/Sanctuary viewpoint. It can be heartbreaking and rewarding at the same time. The stories, baggage and the humans entwined through it all have their own stories. Right now many rescues/Sanctuaries are having great difficulty raising enough funding to continue. That makes for even more birds needing to find a safe place to continue their lives. The one I volunteer for is standing on the edge of that line-feed alone takes over $2000.00 a month and the way our economy is and the lack of volunteers makes for a stressful time right now. None of us have any experience in fundraising and our volunteer who wrote grant applications now has ill elderly family that takes all of her time in another state. So try to make certain you have the ability to keep going once you have begun as we feel the fear and heartbreak of no longer being able to care for those in our hands moving forward. You heart is in the right place and so many birds need help it can be overwhelming. I understand what you are saying. This is also something that Matt (of Project Perry) said. We aim to attack this in several different ways: we want to recruit people to fund-raise. I don't like using pros because donors money goes to a for-profit business, and that has never felt right to me. We also want to create enterprise along with the rescue, using volunteers to make safe, natural toys for sale to bring in money. We also would like to start designing and making playstands to sell. All monies would go to support Marden's Ark. Hopefully with enough volunteer labor, we can establish a good reputation and solid customer base - enough to support the birds. We would also probably have programs where owners could fund care for their birds to guarantee them lifetime homes here. We have already built 4 4'x8' raised bed gardens and have plans to build a greenhouse right next to them, in order to raise our own organic, chemical-free crops year round. There is a nursery here that is organic and they gave us a ton of good information. The owner is a great guy and is more than willing to share his wisdom. We are planting a blueberry bush (already bearing in the pot!) and two raspberry and two blackberry. I am pretty good at propagating, and hope to be able to turn these into a nice hedge full of fruit. We planted an apple tree in Marden's honor. Apples were his favorite fruit. We also plan to add a pear tree, peach tree, and some paw paw trees. I also have a brown turkey fig that is just budding out, but probably will not bear for us this year. We would like to try to grow a significant portion of the food for our birds. We plan to start small, and work our way up. We have no children. All that we own will transfer to the organization upon our deaths. All our life insurance money will go into Marden's Ark. We hope through screening volunteers to find at least one who is trustworthy enough to follow in our footsteps and take over our flock and the reins of the organization. All I can do is pray that God sends us that person. We are as of Friday, incorporated as a NC non-profit corporation. Now we have to obtain a license to solicit, and apply for both state and federal non-profit (501©3) status. Once we get that, we plan to seek the help of our Facebook friends and others to start a crowd-funding campaign to begin the aviary fund. I have a couple of family members who are really good at this. One managed to raise a couple thousand dollars in two days to pay for surgery for a cat that the vet wanted to put down. We hope to not have to depend too much on donations, as we want to get the toy and playstand business going. Hopefully, God will watch over our efforts and bless the work of our hands. We are starting with just what we can afford to support, right now on just one income. Once I am working, we will be able to do more. We plan to grow only as fast as we think we can support in a worst-case scenario. That is all we can do, right now. That, and pray and have faith. Thanks for the advice. I will keep your rescue in my prayers. Edited April 8, 2014 by Muse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muse Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Thank you for the kind words. We are just north of Raleigh, outside of Youngsville. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muse Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Thank you! I will try to be a bit more regular about stopping by here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muse Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Thank you! I will definitely try to keep you all posted on our progress, slow as it seems to be! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muse Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Wow. It is almost like you are reading my mind! That is exactly how we are planning. After we got the Greybies, and I fell so deeply in love with them, I found a whole new respect for these creatures. Their intelligence amazed me. The more I saw, the more I realized I was sorely lacking in what I could give them vs. what they deserve. There were nights I would just cry because I wanted them to have freedom but knew that was not a reasonable option. That was when the obsession to give them the biggest aviary we could build was born. And the whole thing snowballed from there.... Are we wrong to keep them as pets? I don't know. I know I could not love human children any more than I love these birds. I know I grieve the loss of my dear boy every day. Not one day passes that I do not break down in tears. The only time I have ever grieved so hard was upon the death of the woman who raised me - my beloved Grandmother. Mar was truly family to me. Not just a pet. Not just a bird. He was my son. There was so much I wanted to give him. I would give everything I own to have him on my shoulder again. Just to hear his soft little good-night 'coo' once more. Just to kiss his little beak. And then I look at birds who have never had that kind of love, or any love for that matter. Seeing the joy in the birds at Project Perry was the clincher for us. Those birds live as birds are meant to live. They have the things they need - flock, flight and foraging. They sing like wild Greys. Like I taught our Greybies to sing, so they would not forget they are birds. That is what we want to give to birds who need love. A place to fly like a bird. A place to be with others of their kind. A safe place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muse Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Thank you! If you are on Facebook, feel free to like our page and you will see a daily update. You can find a link on any of our pages at avianrefuge.org. I post updates just about every day. Sometimes it is almost the next day (as the sun sneaks up on me) but there is always something each day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muse Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 Thank you very much for your kind and inspiring words! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muse Posted April 8, 2014 Author Share Posted April 8, 2014 muse...wish you the best. I am always here to help you. Nancy That means a lot to me, Nancy! You have so much wisdom to share. I may need you REAL soon..... (see the new post just after this one.....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kins2321@yahoo.com Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 Muse.... We love our guys just like our kids. Whether it be birds, dogs, cats....it doesn't matter. When we lose one of them, we grieve for several years. The pain is always there, but it does lessen.Your love for Marden, will never change. Your loyalty, to Marden, will never change.What has changed... is your ability to open your heart again. I'm hoping I can do that again since Zoey's passing. We start focusing again on our other pets and their needs.I am SOOOO excited to hear more about Peck. I read your other post and can't wait to hear how things are going. Nancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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