Poor Birdies

We just got home from PetSmart, where the first thing we saw was definitely something I'd never seen before. A woman pushing a shopping cart with 3 cockatoos and a parrot sitting on the edges. So we had to go over and see the birds, and one immediately walked his way down the cart near me and started cawing. She said he wanted me to pick him up (!) so I put my arm closer and he stepped right on. "Now he wants a hug," she said, and pushed my arm against my chest. The bird immediately cozied up in my armpit, turned his head to make a pillow out of my shoulder and started cooing. So I stood there with a bird I'd just met, stroking his back while he practically purred. Never met such a friendly or affectionate bird.

It turns out that in the storm two weeks ago, the woman's home burned down in a fire that jumped from the neighbor's house. The firemen, bless 'em, went into the house to grab the two cockatoos she hadn't been able to grab on her way out (the other cockatoo, the parrot and two dogs she'd rescued.) The bird I was holding had come out of the burning house 'sizzling' in her words. He lost most of both wings and feathers all over. The other cockatoo was burned as well, but not as badly. Meanwhile, his owner is homeless, and neither her insurance nor the neighbor's is willing to pay. She's living in a church basement with the church and a bird rescue frantically trying to get stuff for her and the critters. Gave her the boss' info, I think a nasty letter from an attorney would do the trick for her insurance-wise. I hope.