When I spoke to the woman who ran the bird rescue about Piper on August 2nd, 2012, I explained our bird parent history and how we had come to the decision to adopt five years after the passing of our cockatiel, Cato. We chatted a bit longer and then she indicated there were two other conures at the rescue we might be interested in, instead of Piper. As is often the philosophy in animal adoption, the thought was the best bird for us would choose us, so it was best to meet and interact with a few birds to find the best connection.
I made an appointment to visit the rescue on August 11th and she asked me to print and fill out the application that was on their website and bring it along.
I was fully sighted back then, and I did the driving. It took us almost two hours and the ride was filled with nervousness and excitement. Now that we were on our way to the rescue, we wanted it all to go smoothly and find the right bird for us.
As we drove up the long driveway, even with the car windows up and radio on, we could hear birds squawking and talking and whistling. We met the woman who runs the rescue, which is also her home. She went to get Piper from one of the buildings on the property as we waited near her house door. She returned quickly, holding a towel to her chest. As soon as we got in the house, she removed the towel and there was Piper.
We went into her large living room, lined with bird cages and full of birds of many different sizes and species and noise levels. My instinct to save them all kicked in but I forced myself to focus on the orange-fronted conure who had brought us here. He had been put on a bird play stand as he readjusted his feathers after being scooped up in the towel. I spoke to him quietly while he preened and seemed to have no interest in us. Or so I thought.
We also met two other birds that day, a red-throated conure I will call T, and a blue-crowned conure I will call G. G already spoke some phrases and T just wanted his neck rubbed. Piper was the most indifferent, although he too knew the “step up” command and would come to us easily. He liked to use my hair to climb up onto the top of my head, perhaps to show us that he was in charge, above us all.
We were there all afternoon, spending time with the three birds and others, a bit overwhelmed by the number of birds needing homes and the work this rescue was doing. We made an appointment to come back the next weekend and we were asked to narrow our bird pool from three to two by then. Piper was placed back in the towel to be returned to his cage in the other building and we all walked out of the house together. I said goodbye to him as we got in the car. We left with some sore fingers from being nipped and spinning heads, thinking of Piper, T and G.
To be continued . . .
Previous chapters of ‘A Love Story’:
Part I, Part II, Part III, Part 4, Part 5
