Wednesday, February 14th, is Joey's 22nd birthday! As most of you know, Joey the Umbrella Cockatoo is our mascot and Lori's bird. He has been with the Center for almost seven years and Lori adopted him over five years ago.
Joey was surrendered to the Center in October 2000. Lori's sister-in-law ran into a friend of hers at Tosafest that year and asked if she wanted another cockatoo. At the time, Carmen was being fostered by Lori's brother's family. Deb said no, but that Lori was running an exotic bird rescue if they had a bird that they needed to surrender. It was this person's aunt's bird. The aunt called the Center and asked if we could come and pick up her "naughty bird". We took and van over so we could also pick up his cage. Lori told her she's have to sign a release form - and the woman said she would sign it and have Lori sign a form to say she'd never bring the bird back.
What we found out from this woman's caretaker was that Joey's cage was just out of sight of the kitchen, and this woman spent most of her time in the kitchen. Joey would scream for attention and when she couldn't stand it anymore, she would beat him with a fly swatter.
When Joey came to us, you could pet him but he didn't know how to step up and did not trust people at all. It took Lori 1-1/2 years to get him to that point. As soon as he could step up, Lori started taking him everywhere with her, always telling him "it's okay Joey" if he got scared. (To this day, he still says "it's okay Joey" if he gets scared.)
When Lori finally decided that he was adoptable, she found a nice home for him. What Lori didn't realize what how much she loved him and how adopting him out was a horrible mistake. Luckily for Lori, Joey didn't like his new home either. After about a month, the new owner called and said it wasn't working out with Joey. Luckily, there was another really nice male umbrella cockatoo at the Center ready for adoption, so Joey came back and the other cockatoo went to his new home. Lori adopted Joey and they've been together ever since.
Joey has a huge vocabulary and can put words into sentences by himself. He's always asking "puppies, want to go outside? Okay, let's go." He loves to be the center of attention and he's great at our PR events.
If you happen to come in this weekend, remember to say "Happy Birthday" to Joey.
Joey was surrendered to the Center in October 2000. Lori's sister-in-law ran into a friend of hers at Tosafest that year and asked if she wanted another cockatoo. At the time, Carmen was being fostered by Lori's brother's family. Deb said no, but that Lori was running an exotic bird rescue if they had a bird that they needed to surrender. It was this person's aunt's bird. The aunt called the Center and asked if we could come and pick up her "naughty bird". We took and van over so we could also pick up his cage. Lori told her she's have to sign a release form - and the woman said she would sign it and have Lori sign a form to say she'd never bring the bird back.
What we found out from this woman's caretaker was that Joey's cage was just out of sight of the kitchen, and this woman spent most of her time in the kitchen. Joey would scream for attention and when she couldn't stand it anymore, she would beat him with a fly swatter.
When Joey came to us, you could pet him but he didn't know how to step up and did not trust people at all. It took Lori 1-1/2 years to get him to that point. As soon as he could step up, Lori started taking him everywhere with her, always telling him "it's okay Joey" if he got scared. (To this day, he still says "it's okay Joey" if he gets scared.)
When Lori finally decided that he was adoptable, she found a nice home for him. What Lori didn't realize what how much she loved him and how adopting him out was a horrible mistake. Luckily for Lori, Joey didn't like his new home either. After about a month, the new owner called and said it wasn't working out with Joey. Luckily, there was another really nice male umbrella cockatoo at the Center ready for adoption, so Joey came back and the other cockatoo went to his new home. Lori adopted Joey and they've been together ever since.
Joey has a huge vocabulary and can put words into sentences by himself. He's always asking "puppies, want to go outside? Okay, let's go." He loves to be the center of attention and he's great at our PR events.
If you happen to come in this weekend, remember to say "Happy Birthday" to Joey.
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