On the evening of August 1, 2012, I went onto petfinder.com for the first time. I had avoided the site until I was ready to find a bird to love because looking before it was time would have been torture. My husband tells me I can’t save them all, but, oh, how I wish I could. I knew I wanted a bird from a rescue but had no idea where a bird rescue would be or if there even was such a thing.
I entered the criteria of young, male and conure, which is a small to medium-sized parrot. I had read a lot about conures and that was the type of bird at the top of my list. I typed in my zip code and hit enter.
I scanned the listing of results and discovered that the closest bird rescue was A Helping Wing Parrot Rescue and Sanctuary in Blairstown, New Jersey. Further reading indicated I was 62 miles from my the rescue. So far, so good.
I selected the first listing from A Helping Wing that matched my specifications. The posting included this picture:
The information provided with the photo said that he was young but didn’t give an age. It listed him as male. His name was Piper.
The description went on to say that Piper was spunky and had a big personality. The run down also provided a few more facts about the little guy, including the type of conure he was, an orange-fronted conure. I could see why when I looked at his picture.
I wouldn’t say it was love at first sight, but I kept going back to the website to look at his photo and re-read the blurb. I read it so many times, I knew it by heart.
Twenty-five days later, Piper came home with us. His forever home.
