Saving Kettle – Well, Sort Of

I’ve been thinking over the past few months starting my own small business (more on that at another time) but I’ve never considered animal rescue, which makes the couple of animal adventures Amy and I have had this year rather weird.

You may recall last Christmas we bought a female rat for a woman whose beloved pet rat had died (see Act of Rat-dom Kindness). We’ve gone from rats to birds.

When we got home from dinner Monday night November 8, I heard a chirping sound not normally associated to the sparrows, pigeons and crows normally seen swooping around northern Arizona.

“We must have a canary around here,” I said.

“Okay,” Amy responded with a “the-man-has-gone-insane” tone.

 As I got near the door, I noticed what looked like a white sheet of paper between the house and flowers in the flower box under one of our front windows. Then the paper chirped again. “I really am going insane,” I thought.

Upon further review, the piece of paper was actually a cockatiel, a breed you don’t regularly see perched on telephone poles. While Amy turned a dog kennel into a temporary bird cage, I made sure our cat Kirk did not turn the bird into dessert.

Other than having feathers and being able to chirp, neither Amy nor I had much knowledge about cockatiels. Based on information from cockatiel.com, we gave our visitor a small dish of water and a dish of broken up pecans, almonds and peanuts. Amy mentioned our discovery on her Facebook page, and one of her friends mentioned a Lost Bird ad on Craig’s List.

The next day (Tuesday), Amy called the number listed and, sure enough, someone was looking for our unexpected temporary guest. Amy learned the bird’s name was Kettle and she (I did not try to verify the bird’s gender) bolted through an open door to freedom the previous Sunday. Amy made arrangements for her and me to return Kettle to her rightful owners later that day.

I started thinking about how lucky this bird was.

• She escaped being prey to my area’s predators – coyotes, javelins, hawks, eagles, cats.
• She survived a below-freezing night and 2-inch snowfall.
• She was found by two people who actually cared enough to bring her inside, feed her and search for her owners.
• A friend of Amy’s just happened to see both the Lost Bird posting Amy made on Facebook and the Lost Bird posting on Craig’s List.
• Amy was able to contact the owner and make arrangements for an exchange.

And then the bird died.

When I checked on Kettle at mid-day, she had her head tucked under a wing sleeping quietly. Three hours later, she was lying flat on the floor at the center of the cage.

“Uh, Honey? I think the bird is dead,” I told Amy over the phone.

Amy called the owner and gave her the bad news. When Amy got home, we put Kettle in a cardboard box casket and give it to Kettle’s owner as she requested.

We don’t know the cause of Kettle’s demise. Maybe she ate something she wasn’t supposed to while she was “wild”, or maybe she got sick during the cold and snowy night. Whatever the cause, Kettle took her last breaths not at her home but in a strange cage on the floor of my hallway.

Rest in Peace, Kettle. May the winds of heaven be always at your back.