Wing and a Prayer

[katana600]

Every person out there whether you have one parrot or a whole house filled with rescues is contributing to raising awareness for the unique qualities every caretaker needs embody to live with our feathered friends. Whether you brought home a baby with the soulful deep black eyes, or if you became an inadvertent second home, or followed your heart to open your home to a flock all at once, you are the heart and soul of our forum. Our purpose for the forum community is to share our stories, let newcomers see what it means to create a thriving environment for a companion parrot of any size or species.

 

Sometimes it seems like the baggage is too great to have a meaningful relationship with "a parrot with issues". Sometimes our new baby becomes a "terrible teen tyrant" and we are looking for elusive answers to "what happened". Sometimes we wonder if we are the right home or if we let our hearts get ahead of our coping skills. Then I read a post about Bongo flying to Lisa. We follow Muse and Peck and the whole flock. We cheer Isaac and Stephen for reaching insight. We may get a defining moment or we may clean poop off the stairs and get a surly response to our overtures. Over the course of time we watch Dorian go from being quiet on his boing to flipping the tea mug off the desk. Every story matters. Every quiet day you live with your flock "normally", you have a voice that reaches out to somebody else out there and touches the life of another parrot looking for their forever home.

 

We may lose a loved one after spending hours of heart time and the loss is so devastating it makes us want to build a wall and stay inside to avoid that pain. But every word we share gives someone else the opportunity to know what it takes to live with a parrot. Thank you to every contributing member of our forum and to the family we created here to share our experience. Thank you to every reader, every lurker who is just beginning to wonder if they can find the right match for their home or have come in with an "oh dang, what have I gotten myself into?" There are as many unique match ups as there are parrots and humans. Everything worth having is worth the effort to understand just a little more today than we did yesterday. Life is good.

Edited April 28, 2015 by katana600
grammar

[SRSeedBurners]

My personal feelings about the whole matter:

 

[Timbersmom]

Excellent post!

[BaileysPapa]

Well said. I love this forum.

[Greywings]

So well written, good work and that is why we gather here support, sharing and finding others who are smitten with these feathered friends.

[murfchck]

Big hugs to everyone! Well said and brought tears to my eyes!

[JeffNOK]

Beautiful Post! Well written. I agree wholeheartedly.

[judygram]

Dee has a wonderful way with words, she can express exactly what the rest of us are thinking, many thanks to a woman with one of the biggest hearts.

[katana600]

The thing is, I know I can't say enough words of thanks to all the people involved. Every voice matters. Each one of us has a unique situation and sharing knowledge and anecdotes brings just the right encouragement at just the right time to the person or grey who needs it at that moment. We didn't an instruction book with our parrots and even if we did, they would prove it wrong, wouldn't they? For the individuals who I missed mentioning personally, I know that your advice lifts us to greater heights and education and I thank you all. I do feel emotional when I think that without this forum, I would not have known the joy that is living with an African grey. She would not have the chance to learn trust and to shake her baggage right out from those dusty little frazzled feathers. With all of you, we have a chance of lifting up one parrot at a time and to keep aloft the ones who have come before and have settled in our homes in every corner of the world. I know we all strive to be worthy of the gift they are to us.