Five years ago today my husband and I drove 90 minutes to the bird rescue to meet Piper, an orange-fronted conure I had found on petfinder.com. Brought into the large room and placed on a play gym he did not step up on our offered fingers and so we let him be, playing with other birds. We periodically went and spoke to him with no pressure and no extended digits, just calm, quiet voices peppered with his name.
He would eventually accept our fingers that day, walk up our arms and perch on our shoulders and use my hair to climb to the top of my head. He would also bite us during this visit and I’m not going to lie: we were disappointed. The last bird we had held was our fifteen-year-old cockatiel who had passed away five years before. We had become a family when he was only three months old and biting was never an issue. But driving home that day, we talked about Piper’s history. He had lived with a family for four years then had been surrendered to the rescue where he had lived for two years. We knew if that had been our experience, we would be bitey too.
We would return to,the rescue two more times before Piper came home with us for good. For ever. But during that first meeting, he began to show us that time really does heal all wounds. And love, lots and lots of love.
Five years later, Piper helps himself to some cereal from my husband’s bowl. We allow him this sweet treat because today is a special day. It’s a perfect way to celebrate: the former Captain Crunch enjoys some Cap’n Crunch.
