Hello, and thank you for visiting my blog. It has been a long time since I have blogged, but I feel compelled to after the overwhelming support that I have received on social media after rescuing my new little buddy on Christmas Eve.

For those of you who are just stumbling across us for the first time, let me give you the Reader’s Digest version to catch you up:

A week ago, on Christmas Eve, I stumbled across this ad on a Facebook yard sale page. I replied to express my disgust that someone would sell their pet to make room for a newer, sexier model.

That comment that I made ended up being the starting point for a nasty online argument, which eventually led to her blocking me and me being in a funk for a few hours. Through the course of the exchange, I learned that the bird was considered to be a bad bird because he made noise and pecked her children. I learn that she is not the first owner, and that the bird had been bonded with the previous owner. I learn that the current owners are not compassionate and that the bird was in danger of being killed by the new cat. I was told that I was heartless for caring more about “some animal” than the happiness of a child.

I am a bird lover. I have another rescue at home, a Sunday conure named Marley. I’ll tell you his story another day. I also had a wonderful cockatiel named Clementine who died this past summer after many years of poor health. The cage that she had called home for 11 years was still in my garage, waiting. We didn’t plan on adopting another bird. We had actually planned to donate the cage to the local bird rescue, but hadn’t gotten around to it. This ended up being serendipitous; it was surely a sign that this bird needed to come home with us.

After much discussion, we decided to intervene. My husband replied to the ad and within a few hours the bird was in our possession. Sixty dollars got him a raggedy, smelly, and frightened cockatiel in a filthy cage that I would consider too small even for a parakeet. It smelled like the bird and/or cage had been sprayed by a cat. He came with a bag of Healthy Accents (generic) branded round feeder wild birdseed, two old and dirty toys, and no cuttlebone. The bird was yellow all over, and I immediately began to worry that his horrible diet had caused liver failure.

In my next post, I will talk a little more about Charlie, his first few days with us, and most importantly, his first trip to the vet.

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