It won't happen to me! That seems to be the way that us humans get through life, we never think that other people's misfortunes can happen to us. Maybe it's some sort of defence mechanism or maybe it's wishful thinking, I don't know. We like to think that we know our birds, that they love us unconditionally but the truth of the matter is, they don't. They let us cuddle them, tickle them, look after them in general, because we feed them, they don't have to go hunting for food, they have toys to play with so they are happy. They have the intelligence of a small child, there are so many small children that if someone talked to them, offered them sweets, played with them, they would quite happily go off with that person because that person made them happy, so the child would trust them and no matter how many times we say to the child, don't go with strangers, don't talk to strangers, don't take sweets from strangers....they still do it, because they think that nothing bad would happen to them. When we take out birds out into the garden without a harness or a cage, we think that the birds are loyal to us, they won't fly away because they love us, always comes back when called (indoors), always steps up when asked (indoors), whereas the truth of the matter is, once a bird is unrestrained and something spooks it, then you will be very lucky indeed to get that bird back. Survival instinct kicks in, fight or flight, and your bird will choose flight every time. Any smidgeon of loyalty that your bird might have had will vanish up into the sky along with your bird. Why even chance it, why give your bird the opportunity to fly away, would you put your child in danger from being led away by other people? If you love your child you protect it from all dangers, if you love your bird you don't even give it the chance to be scared and take flight. Use a harness, or a cage when you take your bird out of the house. It is heartbreaking to see so many birds lost because of one moment of lack of concentration, but it is even more heartbreaking to see a beautiful bird flying away from you because of your own pigheaded belief that the bird won't leave you.
I wish I'd read that before Bobby flew away!
Fortunately for us, he was found yesterday and we've got him home. He'd been gone a week.
It was my own stupid fault, I didn't realise his flight feathers had grown back and he would come and go on top of his cage as he pleased. When I got home last Friday afternoon, he was on the plants outside and as I tried to get him he just flew away.
We are one of the lucky few to get ours back and we're extremely grateful to the kind man who shimmied up the tree Bobby was in, managed to capture him and took him home, then rang our local animal rescue centre the next day.
I know many of you do not agree with having the flight feathers removed, but we are going to do it, I cannot think it would be better for him to be locked up all day in a cage and I can't chance him flying away again.
