An Escape Story

By Deb Hegeman

I bought a 9 month old hand raised conure about 3 months ago. She bonded really quickly with me and likes to sleep in the same bed. I have placed a buddy hammock in her cage that she crawls into at night to sleep in.

This weekend I was cleaning her cage on our open deck and she got loose. She flew over the house and was gone but I could hear her squawking. I ran through the garage to the front lawn but still couldn't see her. Meanwhile my husband ran out onto the deck and saw her sitting about 60 feet up in a tree overlooking the deck where her cage was.

We tried for six hours to get her to fly down but the two times she tried she slipped off the tiny branch she was on and scared herself and flew higher. During this time we tried food, treats, toys everything. Nothing worked. Finally we got out a 30 foot ladder (mind you she is still up over 60 feet in the tree) and put it against the house. She tried again to come to me only she slipped and scared herself again. This time she ended up facing away from us. There was a dead tree about 15 feet away from the tree she was in. We propped the ladder against that tree and up I went, and I'm scared of heights.

I had a plastic bucket of her favorite treats, little round seed balls. I was about 20 feet lower than her but facing her and across from her. I called her and sure enough her little wings started flapping and she was quivering back and forth trying to get up her courage to fly. It took her about 2 minutes and she finally launched herself towards the tree I was in. She landed on a branch about 10 inches from me. I extended my finger to her and told her to "step up" and sure enough she did. I then grabbed her securely and with my other hand dumped the bucket of seeds, (unfortunately on my husband's head) and stuffed her in the bucket and put the top on. I raced down the ladder and into the house.

I consider it a miracle that we got her back. We call her Bubbles or Squawky depending on how loud she is. She has gotten in the habit of trying to eat anything that I eat and stealing from my fork as I try to get it into my mouth.

They really do have strong personalities and she has still not forgiven my husband for yelling at her when we first brought her home. She is very protective of me and has dive-bombed assistants working in the vet's office when they got too near to me. She's trying to help me type right now.

Editor's Note: Our dear friend, Deb Hegeman, passed away in March 2007. Her birds, Bubbles and Sakes, were relinquished to Midwest Avian Adoption Services shortly before her passing. Bubbles and Sake are now available for adoption.

If you are interested in adopting Bubbles and Sake (they must be adopted together), please contact MAARS.