Lost and found cockatiel - never lose hope- worth the few minutes to read! :)

Got this in my e-mail today, worth the few minutes it took to read it, I have warm squishy fuzzies in my heart now smitten.gif
-for anyone who believes in rescue (which is all of us!) or for anyone who needs a smile...read this

I am including the whole story and I want to thank you so much. You are a wonderful group and so helpful. PLEASE READ

On April 23rd I recieved a phone call from Lee Parker at the Metropolis, Illinois Project Hope animal shelter saying that a man named Dallas Pye called that works at a local buisness in town that has found a bird in the alley. They asked if I would be interested in picking him up and taking care of him. They said he explained the discription sounded like a tiel. I went and picked him up and saw a skinny grey tiel setting in his window that he brought in. Dallas found it laying in the alley at his place of work. I had a bird cage ready and sitting in the van with food and water. As soon as I put him in he went straight for food and water. I have birds of my own so for the first week or two I kept him in a seperate room, in case he was ill. I noticed a little band on his leg, it wasnt a closed band and not a quarenteen band either. It was a band that had been cut, and wrapped around his leg, overlaping and tight. It is a painful frightening process to put him through. He was very upset about the band, as if it was new, biting at it and squaking about. After I put ads in all newspapers within 80 miles and got no new leads I checked out the internet. I found several places to look and to post. 911parrotalert being my favorite because they seem to have just about everyone and a bunch of helpful information. I also joined a LegBandNumbers group to trace this band to a breeder which it has not been traced. I met a bunch of very knowledgeable helpful and sweet people on that site to advise me on what to do. He had hurt himself some on the band and also had cut his leg pretty good on it at my house and had to be givin antibiotics. We had him checked for a microchip but he didnt have one. Still thin and slowly recovering, I fuigure all I can do now is wait and see who contacts me. I had a phonecall... the lady on the other end of the phone told me that he was unwanted and unloved and I would never find his owner because his owner didnt want to be found. I of course asked how she knew this and she explained she was at casey's gas station (busy area in a small town) broad daylight and a white minivan with vanity plates stoped in the middle of the street and rolled down the window and a man threw him out of the window. I asked if she notified police, but said she didnt want to be involved. I did, and gave them her # too. The ad was in the paper, many locals knew I had a found bird, everyone reads the paper here and someone threw a tiel out of a window at a busy intersection in town in the day and no one else calls. Hmmmm. Ironicly it was the same area he was found, but as strange as her story was I have to consider it. So I made the police report which they have also been very nice and helpful about this situation. I went to his cage and just sadly stared at him and said "so you are unwanted, huh?" as I walked away he said "Retty IRD" he couldnt get all the letters into pretty bird but he was trying. He said it louder and louder and once he got it down pat we heard it for a good 4 or 5 hours straight until he was exhausted. The next morning I woke up to gargeling and scratchy noises as if he was fustrated and remembering something else...next thing I knew he was laughing. "Hahahahaha" so then we had a day of "Retty Ird" and "hahahahahahaha" I looked in his cage again and said "YOU ARE NOT UNWANTED!" He was louder and louder beyond the sound of a tiel and more in comparison of a conure. Perhaps to a close minded person that hadnt had a bird very long, they may have tossed him out a window after all. The next day was a new sound... A CAR ALARM!!! just as loud as the real thing, lol. Later that evening I got the gurgeling again...out came the alarm clock noise!
I changed my search, I did not want to find who put this awful band on him, I did not care to find who tossed him out a window. I wanted to find who taught him all this. He did too, he would remember it and it was non stop "telling me to search, I want to go HOME!" He began this deal with banging on his food dish so hard I thought he would hurt himself. It was way harder and longer than my males standard terratorial thing. It got better...I was taking calls on my cell phone and he would get so bent outa shape I had to take all calls outside. I decided to hold the phone up to him and help him to see that the phone wasnt hurting me. He ran with his wings out to that phone, put his head on the earpiece and said.... "Oh! , Watcha doin? Hahahahahahaha. .. Retty Ird, wolf whistle, over here whistle and so on", lol. I had a lady Amy Coram that travels town to town in several counties here to go over diet, counsel weigh, and clip birds. She came to the house and cut his toenails (which were the longest I have ever seen) and clip his wings so he could come out and play with my birds. She set him on a perch and looked him over and weighed him and he was such a good boy. He had to be without a way to perch with such long nails and his beak was verry long as well. She clipped his wings and toe nails and he was cool as could be about it. Didnt squirm like mine, lol. Afterwards she set him on her finger and he sang to her. Then he gave her a kiss. UNWANTED??? He has a way to grab your heart and make you give him whatever he wants. Bird rescues helping and vets, and specialists all were deeply touched by him. Some calling just to talk to him, lol. He has took calls from Texas, Louisville, Ky. Nashville, Tn. and Michigan even. He was doing good here gaining weight and talking more and more, remembering and demanding we know about who he was. He was not lacking a home, everyone wanting him, but we were all knowing he needed his home. I made him a promise, as silly as this sounds... to not let him be thrown away, to not let him be banded and tossed in a dark chicken cage to be sold. To not be silenced in the dark, and to not go hungry. Someone put alot of time and trouble and love into him some time ago and he was missed and he missed someone special.
Thus my search became even more intense. I had a volunteer from 911parrotalert whom lives in Michigan contact me and vowed to work endlesly with me contacting many, many people. Thank you for not sleeping that week Denise Landrum, you are a wonderful person and I am thrilled to have a new friend in you. With the support of others I have met that were knowledgable in one way or another me and her began searching the internet for "Retty Irds owner" They would send photos and I would foreward to Michigan and she would contact me back with a poster lining up facts on changes with time, diet and weight special markings etc... to going over personalities. So many lovely tiels in the state, it was so difficult to tell someone it wasnt their bird. It was the only way to know though. We had to rule people out and do all the same. Needle in a haystack! Then we had some that were real longshots. Denise gave me a few to email that were just so long ago that I was questioning how silly I will look emailing these people. Remember he had a bootleg band so we know he was in captivity, not freezing in the winter. If the place or places he stayed were good or bad, they kept him alive. He didnt starve, and he didnt freeze. Could have been gone for any length of time and we couldnt restrict miles. His band did say Illinois so we had a good idea he has possibly remained instate.
Durring the course of emails loading my box endlesly I opened one that read something like this (this info was in the course of 2 emails from her).....
"I know that it is unlikely, but we keep staring at his photo and he looks just like ours. We miss him so much. I will first tell you a little about our lil guy. His name is "Rickers" but he only responds to pretty bird. It is his favorite word. He doesnt say pretty bird though, he says "retty ird". He laughs, He does some whistles, wolf whistle, cat call, and whistels random songs. He dives into his food dish and loves to bang on just the dish with his beak real loud. You would think it hurts because it is louder and harder than normal. He is very loud, almost amplified for a tiel. He loves his neck rubbed and will let you know when to leave him alone. He is persistant on getting what he wants. Trusts and loves people. He also does a car alarm and an alarm clock. He picks up on sounds very easily. I saw in the photo he has the same heart shape circles and the same white hook on his neck as my Rickers. He isnt afraid of anything. Give him a shower, he loves to sing in them. He can hear his voice amplified even more in the bathroom he loves it. If he remembers he may take water from a gerbil bottle and eat mashed potatoes from a spoon. Can I have a phone #?
Well, I gave her my #, lol. I got the chills when the bird laughed on the phone and she laughed back, IT WAS THE SAME LAUGH! He put his head on the phone and was soooo quiet and looked at the phone, and looked at me and began kissing the phone and listening (he had never been silent on the phone before) Once he started making noise, she began labeling them! Oh thats the old car alarm from down the street....Oh thats the alarm clock in my room.
I sent in photos to Denise and got a comparisons twice, and one call to a bird behavioralist in Texas (Thank you Jammie) and it was official. I called her and told her we had her "Rickers"
This is the part that is sooooooo hard to believe....Karl & Marilee Rutherford lost Rickers in the city of Chicago 400 miles away from me and she lost him in 2005 4 YEARS AGO!!!
They were notified on the 10th of June and arrived to pick him up June 14th. They rented a car and did 800 miles total in one day and came in the house and said "pretty bird" He looked up and said "retty...... .IRRRRRRRD! " He got right on her hand and climbed to her neck and then gave kisses, they rubbed his face and neck....he would not let me do that but he fell asleep when they did. No doubt to them or us at that point that this was him. This was a moment I will never forget. He remained very quiet durring most of their stay and just kept looking up with his head half turned squinting and basking in the joy that after 4 years he is home. They got him home and have emailed me regularly amazed at his memory. He remembers everything and is back to his old tricks. They took him to his amazed vet and had the band removed, and checked over. All is well from my last word yesturday.
If this little birdy can overcome such large obstacles then how much more can we overcome? I miss that persistant lil mimic "Pretty Bird" and it was 7 weeks of my life I will not soon forget, but he is where he needs to be...Home. Thank you all for your help and prayers.
I just think little Rickers flew into all of our lives with a message, and one way or another he makes you think about how many things dont make sense but have pourpose. Even if it is sad, heartbreaking, not fair, or painful it all has purpose. Perhaps he had to be missing so long as a message to hold on. With all logic Rickers does not make sense, I agree! But thats the amazing part of life, all the things that cant be explained. Rickers is a heartwarming fellow, and has gotten ahead of the others by making some noise, and remembering, and trusting. It sure wouldnt hurt me to learn to mimic him for a change. Blessings.
Melissa

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