Chance's Story

The boy (teenager), who used to live next door, came over one day, and asked if I wanted another bird, and told me that his friend, was looking for someone to buy his bird. When I asked him why, he told me that he wanted the money, so he could fix up his motorcycle, that he wrecked. I thought...he is thinking of that bird as MONEY!? NOT a living, breathing, beautiful, companion!? I knew then and there, that I had to get this bird away from this kid! (Get the Kleenex out now) First I had to talk the hubby into it. That wasn't too hard when I started talking of all the things this poor baby could be going thru, and then started crying. (That ALWAYS gets the hubby.) He said we were ONLY going to look, and make sure that it is ok, and I agreed to that. We made an appointment to see the bird, and went right over there. We walked into the living room of this stranger's house, and I seen the cage in the middle of the room, up against the wall. The floor around it was clean, so I could tell that it was not in the place where it usually stays. The wall behind the cage was also too clean. The boy took Chance (Petrie was her name), out of a cockatoo cage (wrong cage for her, and nowhere to climb), and held her in one hand, and a CIGARETTE in the other. I wanted to take her and run! I could see that her feet were green, from standing on the bottom of the cage, in her own feces, and her band was cruddy with it. My guess would be, that she had never had a bath! In her bowls, (cruddy, filthy bowls) was pellets, and dirty, dirty water! On the bottom of her cage, she had some rubber stuff you put under rugs, to keep them from sliding, and I asked why it was there, and he told me that they didn't like to listen to her tap tap tapping on the bottom of the cage floor, so they put that in there. Arrggg! I could see that she had taken little bites from it, and probably ATE them, along with her droppings! I looked over the bird, and could see that her nares were clean, and she was alert, and in good feather, so she wasn't in bad health. The boy went in the other room, and I looked at hubby, and had tears in my eyes, and he KNEW I wanted to get her out of there. He haggled with the boy on price, as I talked to Chance, and we took our 4 month old sweetheart home! I and hubby truly believe, if she had remained there, she would be dead today, so we named her Chance...as in second Chance at life. She had a yeast infection, and was treated promptly, while in quarantine, in my bedroom, away from Moochie. (I didn't get Tuey until August of last year.) Remind me, and I will tell you HIS story!