 On
July 10th, 1997, my friend and I were taking my two gray & yellow male
Cockatiels to the vets for a check up in Mississauga Ontario. We were going to see Dr Valsamis but found he was very rude to me when they boys escaped in his words "Im kind of busy right now what do you want?".When we got
to the last three steps of the office door, the cage had broken and out
went the birds, to the not so great outdoors. They flew up into the tall
trees for 2 hours and would not come down.
We stayed there with the guys in the trees trying to coax them down, by whistling with a very good response. After that they flew away and I went home very devastated and lots of tears. During the time of loss, we distributed over 500 flyers, that were put up on mail boxes, light poles, pet stores, vet’s offices, shelters and ads in newspapers, to let people know my babies were missing. I phoned all the animal shelters everyday, especially in Mississauga. The birds were lost in the Britannia and 10th line area, just a twenty minute drive from where I live. I had a few prank phone calls and a lot of false alarms, which were not my birds. There were an awful lot of missing Cockatiels out there. On Wednesday September 11, 1997, just two months later, I received a phone call from the Mississauga animal shelter to let me know that someone had just brought in a Cockatiel that was badly mutilated in a cat fight on his front lawn. Automatically I thought it has to be Jesse, because I have a cat that Jesse was never afraid of. I went to see this poor bird who hissed, shook terribly and was very skinny . I brought a picture of Jesse with me and one of the workers at the shelter looked at the picture and said nope it’s not your bird and took him away, so I couldn’t see him anymore. They were very rude to me. I knew it was my Jesse but
they insisted it wasn’t because he was darker in color from not getting
the proper food and being outside for so long.
So then I went to the Oakville shelter to see if they could help me find my bird and they gave me an address of a couple who found a young Cockatiel two weeks prior to this day. My friend and I went to see the bird and it was my bird, Bengy. He was a hand-raised baby bird before we lost them and is now an adult bird with one baby tail feather. The tail gave it away, so Bengy was going home for good. Bengy no longer lets me rub his head or touch him like I used to, because he was out in the wild. But he is hand tame. Since Jesse was at the shelter, with no way of me getting him home, one of my friends, who is a bird owner, went to claim Jesse as her bird and she took him home with no questions asked. I went to see Jesse and couldn’t believe my eyes. He had a big gash on his head and a deep wound on his bum. I cried and said, “Jesse, you didn’t deserve this”. I feel so sorry for him. On the following Monday, my friend and I took Jesse and
Bengy to a real good vet in Guelph, named Dr. Taylor. He said that Jesse
is so lucky to be alive and it’s amazing he survived a fight with a cat.
Jesse had to be admitted for one night to clean his deep wounds and with vitamins in his system. Bengy was fine, no physical problems and otherwise healthy. After Jesse was released, he went home with my friend. She took good care of him, while cleaning his wounds and giving him antibiotics twice a day. Jesse came home to me on September 27, 1997, which was a very exciting day for me and Bengy. Seeing Jesse in a bad state of mind was rather devastating. He is treated very special with lots of love . As of April, 1998, Jesse is still very traumatized. He eats well, hisses a lot and doesn’t whistle very often. This is a totally different Jesse than before. He used to talk and whistle and always wanted to come on my hand, where as now he is very timid. Bengy is very protective of Jesse and inside he feels his pain. This story is 100% true. The guys were missing for two months exactly.
Jesse turned 4yrs old Jan8th/2000 Happy Bird-day Jesse!!!!
I love you Bengy + Jesse
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Email: birds@sprint.ca
