Monday, October 27, 2008

Saturday at the rescue

I didn't take any good pictures of my own parrots this weekend. I did capture one of Elsa, my female uromastyx lizard. My lizards are brumating right now, which I think of as a minor hibernation. A week will go by with them not emerging from their hides.

Friday, I returned home from work to a surprise: both lizards were out! As soon as I entered the living room, Andreas entered his hide (he may give me some kind of complex!), but Elsa seemed more energetic. She even ate some greens, which is rare for her during brumation.

Their story is similar to that I just read of Bikini on Sugar Selection's blog. We pity purchased them from a pet store that wasn't properly caring for them. It was the last day the store was in business, and we'd overheard the employees speculating about what would happen to them if no one purchased them. I couldn't get those thoughts out of my mind of these poor innocents suffering, so we brought them home. Like Bikini, they were captured from the wild to be sold as pets. It breaks my heart because even though we are providing the best possible home we can for them, it's nowhere near what they would have experienced had they been able to continue living in Africa.Saturday morning we had a race, the last one until Spring, and then we headed, tired, to the rescue. There weren't a lot of people that needed to be helped, so I got to spend time hanging out with and assembling toys for the parrots that live at the facility.

This little sun conure has a horrible scissor beak. You can't tell from this picture, but that's where the top and bottom beak don't line up, so the top goes off to the side. We're hoping that with proper trimming, it can be brought back to normal. She is one of the sweetest little birds, and incredibly beautiful. However, sun conures have very loud calls! She was perched on my bead container, supervising my toy-making progress:Thomas hadn't been up to the rescue for quite some time, and the macaws certainly missed him! I was able to capture this picture of him with one of his ladies:A terribly sad bird also came in. I didn't get a picture, but will try to later this week. A 25 year old mitred conure was surrendered. This bird was never even loved enough to have been given a name. He lived for about 20 years with an alcoholic whose favorite pasttime was terrorizing and teasing this poor conure. Finally, his dad had enough and brought the bird home to live with him for about 5 years. But he still didn't name the bird! He realized that he wasn't giving the bird what he needed, and surrendered him to us. He's now in a big cage, with tons of toys, and on a good diet.

After about 3 hours getting used to his surroundings, he came over to the side, soliciting my attention, and actually started saying "hello!" to me. It's so sad to think of what this poor creature has endured during his life. It won't be easy to find him a home. He's plucked out almost all of his feathers, and is not socialized.

I know I can't save everyone, but he's one that I wish we had room for, to give him a great last few years of life.

Sorry for such a depressing start to the week! I'll try to get some happy parrot pictures tonight!

9 comments:

DoodleBird said...

It never ceases to amaze me how even badly abused animals will still "solicit" attention is one way or another. Humans are such loosers.

Mallow said...

I think that little parrot's life is already 100% better since he is with people that love him.

Wow, that macaw is really cuddly with Thomas. Do they all turn to putty in his arms like that?

Thanks for the recent blog visit and comments. No worries, I'm not taking the blog down yet.

Mary said...

DB -- It is hopeful that he will find that special person. We're actually hoping to pair him up with a same sex conure in a similar situation at a close rescue. We have done that with 2 pair of other unwanted mitred and white-eyed conures, successfully.

Mallow -- thanks for the kind words. I can't wait to visit him again to see how he's doing!

I think Thomas is half-macaw. They all love him. It is surreal. In the 5 years we've been volunteering at the rescue, he's dealt with well over 100 macaws, and every single one of them loves and trusts him enough to do stuff like that.

Glad to hear you're keeping the blog! I got so busy with work and life that I didn't have time to check the blogs I read for almost a month. Eek!

Anonymous said...

breaks my heart - and knowing so many more are out there. I only wish for that person to be treated the same for the rest of his life. Only seems fair.

Sugar Selections said...

Thanks for mentioning Bikini. I wish more people would open their hearts to the Andreas's, Elsa's, and Bikini's of the world.

I've been stalking Freecycle for months looking for a 50+ gallon aquarium so I'd be able to take in more Craig's List and pet store rescue hermit crabs.

Mary said...

I agree with doodlebird. How sad! Such a cute picture with Thomas. That bird looks mighty cozy!

Tony Wildish said...

That mitred conure has had a hard life, true, but if there weren't people like you and Thomas doing what you do, there'd be no hope of a happy ending for him. It takes a lot of courage to do work like that, and I salute you for it. Power to you both!

Mary said...

Snoopers -- thanks for the nice comment. Thomas and I don't do nearly enough, but I realize you can't save everyone.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. I try to stay upbeat on the blog, but get down occasionally, as you may have noticed :)

D. Richard said...

I know this goes back a year ago but what happened to the 25 year old Mitred Conure. I have a soft spot for the Conures since I have two. and I have been reading older posts lately.