The Bird That Almost Wasn't

The Bird That Almost Wasn’t

I had been training hard for a marathon that was less than a month away.  On October 22, a Saturday, I did a killer long run and just to kick my ass even more I went to the gym for an hour on Sunday.  I earned a hamburger, a delicious burger cooked on the back grill.  On the way home from the gym I ran into the grocery store and got a fresh roll for this delicious burger I can not wait to eat.  I walk in the door, throw down my gym bag, get the burger out of the freezer, put it on a tray and I’m going to the grill.  I open the back door, bend down to turn on the grill and...

my Sun Conure Sammie flies away.  

    

What?  Wha? Oh my god no! Sammie! I scream come back, Sammie!  I run in the house and tell my ill husband Gary, that Sammie flew away.  I didn't know she was on me.  I don’t know what to do.  I run out of the house and scream Sammie.  I run into neighbors yards.  Neighbors I never met in the 20 years I’ve lived there, I am now walking all over their property.  I am looking high up in trees.  I go up and down the street, in and out of yards.  I walk around the block.  A neighbor I know drives by and sees the look on my face, she says what's wrong.  I tell her.  She is with an older guy I never met and her twenty year old son James was in the back, they wish me luck and drive off.  

    

I keep walking around, I see a dozen kids maybe between 6 and 10 years old playing in the street with a father and I tell them if they see an orange bird let me know, and I live over there pointing to the house.  I start to walk away and the father says its OK they’ll help you find him.  Her, find her, but yeah great, she’s orange and about this big and we all start around the block calling out.  I am walking up a street being trailed by a dozen children all of them yelling Sammie.  I say to them are you sure you can go this far?  They say they are texting their mom telling her where they are and she's tracking them.  ?  I am so lucky I was never tracked as a kid.  At least the base is covered and I am not going to be charged with abducting children.  

It's maybe an hour, feels like days, I hear her.  OMG she is two blocks away in a high tree.  One kid said to put some seeds on the ground so she’ll come down.  I got a better idea.  I run home and put her boyfriend in his cage and jam and twist it in the front seat of the car.  It's quite a struggle, I nearly have to bend the cage to get him in and out of the car, so keep that part in mind when I mention his travels.  They love each other, but he hates me cause she also loves me too, the slut of a bird that she is.  So with Pumpkin, the boyfriend, there I figure she will hear him and come to him.  James, the young guy from next door shows up and he see her in the tree he points her out.  She is sooo high up.  But I see her.  

She then flies to another tree closer to my house.  She's is only there a minute and goes to another tree. She trying to fly home!  I can not see her but we all hear her and Pumpkin, the bird husband, is screaming at her to come down and she is screaming back.  She probably wants to but doesn't know how. It’s getting late.  The sun is going to go down soon.  I tell James to watch my car, I leave the windows open so Pump can yell at her and its running to keep him warm.   I run home to get her cage, maybe if she sees a place to land she will fly down. 

 I come back and I'm told a cat was climbing into my car to attack the other bird.  What?? What??  No!  I am not losing both of them. They had to shoo it away. In the 5 minutes I was gone a predator tried to attack my other bird.  Sammie is in big time danger.  If she flies to the ground a cat will kill her.  I put Sammies cage on my car hood and now it's getting dark, so dark she stopped yelling.  Only one or two peeps here and there.  I gotta bring Pump home, he can't stay out in the cold.  It’s October, it’s suppose to stay in the 50’s but it's cold at night.  I go home to let Pumpkin go to sleep.  My ill husband who stopped driving drives over to see where she is.  I follow him.  He calls the police explaining he was a cop once.  The police come out and they are shining bright lights in the tree but we don’t see her.  They finally say there is nothing they can do and leave.  Gary was yelling for her, we had a bell they away play with, I was ringing.  

He never heard her.

 I went back at 2:30AM carting her cage and the bell with me and yelling for her.  Nothing.  Earlier that day (or was it the day before?), a neighbor took my phone number in case something happened and I wasn’t there.  I'm standing in the street and a cat starts to hang out with me.  The cat rubbed up against my legs and then followed me to my house and was on the back deck where I put her cage in case she fly back.  Are you the same scoundrel that wanted to jump in my car?  Oh no you are not eating my bird if she comes home.  I scoot it away and never see it again. 

 It’s 5am, I twist and scrunch Pump's cage in the car and we go to rescue Sammie, it’s predawn.  Nothing.  He starts yelling for her but it’s still dark.  6am the sun starts coming up then finally it’s full daylight and I hear her.  I am yelling at her to get down and stop fooling around.  I have to leave by 8:30 to go to work.  Pump and I are out there yelling she won't come down.  Fucking annoying bird.  Another hour, I get her cage on my hood.  And it’s starting to rain a little.  I gotta leave for work.  I am losing my mind, but I gotta do payroll,  I gotta run a marathon, I gotta save my bird. 

 I get to work, work as hard and as fast as I can.  Tell them I have an emergency and need to leave. They probably thought my ill husband was dying.  I leave at 11:45, I did the fastest payroll of my life, as I drive home it’s raining hard.  It’s cold and raining.  No no no.  I go home get Pump put him in the car, crank the heater for him but not on him, cause I am an informed responsible bird owner that knows not to do that.  But I am also the same person who walked outside wearing a bird on her shoulder.  When we, we as in my new best friend Pumpkin the bird that always attacked me before, park I open my sunroof and put an umbrella thru it and his chewed up towel on the back of the cage to protect him.  I do not hear her at all.  He's yelling, I can tell the way he looks at me he knows what's going on, but we hear nothing.  

Maybe she flew to another tree, I drive slowly around the neighborhood trying to get Pump to yell.  I’m ringing the bell.  Maybe she fell and is in a bush, I am digging thru neighbors hedges.  I am surprised I wasn't arrested for being insane.  I certainly looked like a crazy woman. I go back to the tree she was in, park the car, window cracked and umbrella on roof, I walk around in the cold rain, other birds are flying around.  There is a bird feeder in someone's yard and they are all yelling and happy wet birds in the rain. Maybe if Sammies sees them she will join in the flock fun.  I read a text from the neighbor I just met saying she stopped hearing her at 11am.  

Where are you Sammie?

I am texting other people about bird rescue. The rain stops for a minute the neighbor comes out that texted me and we talk.  She says bring her cage here and leave it in her driveway so she has a place to land.  I go home and get her wet soaked cage that has been on the porch and put it in her driveway.  I go in and out of the car walk up and down the street.  I'm afraid if someone sees the cage in the driveway they will think its trash and maybe take it.  I put the cage on my car hood.  

 The rain was off and on, sometimes harder, then it would stop and start again.  At least it kept the killer cat away.  When it rained hard I waited in the car more.  I doubted she would be flying down when it was pouring.  On a rain break the man that owned the bird feeder came out and we start talking.  He was an old veteran, retired, and knew what it's like to lose a pet.  A really nice man.  I had no idea I had such wonderful neighbors. 

I'm talking on the phone to someone who heard about this and she's giving advice but I've done it all.  Even things they didnt think of.  I think I see her, I hang up on the person, scream Sammie, I run down the street, no it was an orange leaf falling out of a tree.  I don't know what to do.  I grab my head, I'm broken but I am not leaving.  Maybe I will text the girl I hung up on.  I go back in the car.  No, I don't even know her, so I get out of the car and look up the street. 

Sammie is laying in the road. 

 I scream, I bolt, I scoop her up in my hand she is not moving, not sure if her eyes are seeing me or breathing.  No No No.  I race to the car drive to the vet that is in the next town.  I call them, busy, I’m at a traffic stop, I call again busy busy.  I call home I tell Gary call the vet tell them I am coming. FYI holding a dying bird in one hand, driving and making 3 calls on the phone are next to impossible.  Don't ever try it.  More road closures and construction. I look at her and she is all twisted like she has no bones or they are in the wrong place.  I sorta angle my hand different and she gets back to a more normal form.  I had no idea birds could be that contorted.  

I get there, but I have to make a one handed U-turn because of road construction, not easy.  I think my left knee helped turn the wheel.  There is not a car in the lot.  Are they even open?   I leave her on the seat, and the vets door is open.  Thank god.  They say yes, your husband just called bring her in.  I say I don’t know what to put her in.  She's not in her cage.  I am so confused at this point. No sleep, no food.  They say they have a towel and we will wrap her up.  Right! Pump has a towel on his cage.  I try to get it off.   The assistant comes out with a towel but I ignore him, she needs to be in the old chewed up towel that she knows and loves.  We go in and the assistant takes her and puts her in his clean soft towel and tosses the shredded old bird towel that I insisted she must be in.  They brings her in the back. Can I go in there? Can I be with her? I pace a bit and see big bold signs saying "No Entry.  Must Wear Mask.  Must Call Before Entering. Wait Outside. " 

 I am breaking every Covid rule. 

 I see the vet.  I see him run to a closet grabbing something.  Never saw him move so fast.  I cry.  I still cry when I think of this.  Finally he comes out and says she is in shock, probably doesn't know she's a bird. We have her in an incubator, and she'll have to stay overnight, we will know more in the morning.  He shot  her with fluids, keeping her warm, but her heart rate BMP is 6.  SIX.  It should be 100.  They say they will call if anything happens before they close at 5.  It was 1:30, Ok Ok I'll wait to hear from you tomorrow.  I give my cell but it never works and I give the home number too.  

It’s 4 o’clock and it’s the vet calling…NO, I am so afraid of this call.  She has to stay all night, he said ALL NIGHT.  It's only a 4, only a few hours later.  He says OK you can come get her.  

She bit me.  

I made a hamburger that night for dinner the roll wasn't as fresh.