From the "This Could Only Happen to Me" files......The parakeet in the above photo clings to his rescuer - yours truly. The Hub and I were walking down the street talking about his latest client concern when he suddenly, wordlessly pointed down into the gutter. There was this parakeet.

"Is that a parakeet?" he asked, astonished.

"Yep, that's what that is. He must have gotten away from somebody." I replied and bent down ( carefully) to try to pick him up. He hopped right up into my hand.

We knocked on the door of the nearby house. No, not their bird, though my neighbor, who was visiting would be happy to take him, she said. ( at least until he bit her - hard)

"What are you gonna do with him?" she asked.

"I guess we'll take him home and put him in with Buckbeak - give him some seed. Tomorrow I'll call the humane society and put an ad in the paper - I think they let you have 'found' ads for free. He has to be somebody's pet, poor thing."

As I looked at him more closely, it occurred to me that he could have been outside for awhile. His claws were very long and his beak was sharp and jagged, as if he hadn't had the benefit of a cuddlebone for a long time. While he seemed uninjured and willing to let me stroke him all down his back he is missing some feathers near where his tail feathers start. And he clung to me as if in relief.

It had just rained, so it's possible that he got out a window and got "blown off course". Nevertheless, we walked up the street behind us, questioning neighbors who were out and inquired down at the coffee shop if anybody knew anybody who was missing a bird. No luck.

We brought him inside and set him on top of Buckbeak's cage with a small container of seed. He ate as much of it as he could until he literally fell asleep in it face first. We woke him up and put him, with the extra seed, in the cage. Buckbeak didn't seem to mind him. He cuddled up with The New Guy on the perch. Now our guest has his head firmly under his wing: he seems exhausted.

So now we have a pair of tweeters. This is a beautiful bird as you can see from the photo and he seems as tame and sweet as Buckbeak - well, if you don't count him biting my nieghbor. But, really, he's traumatized. He's larger than Buckbeak and he seems older. I hope he doesn't have some deadly bird virus, but we really didn't have any other place to put him.

I wonder if we'll find his person?