Awesome Saturday!

Had an awesome day today.  Dr. Scott Ford, who is the new board-certified avian vet at Brook-Falls Veterinary Hospital and Exotic Care, stopped in to see the Center, so I gave him the Grand Tour.  Cooper, the bronze-winged pionus who has been in foster care to adopt, was formally adopted today.  Charlie the plucked Senegal also was adopted today.  Doc the Goffin Cockatoo went home with his new family as well.  We DNA'd an amazon, who will have a brother or sister once we know what sex he/she is.  People stopped by to meet Big Lou, the Blue and Gold Macaw, and that went well.  Peaches the Moluccan Cockatoo has an adoption pending and should be going home sometime this week.  This all kept us busy all day long; now home, dinner and relaxing with the dogs.  Have a great Sunday everyone!

Off to a New Life

As I write this post, Katie, Gabby and Snowball are on a plane heading to the Seattle, WA airport.  They will be picked up by Lori Rutledge, who runs Cockatoo Rescue & Sanctuary, where the three birds will be living out the rest of their lives.  They will be living in huge flights with their own kind.  Katie and Gabby are Moluccan Cockatoos that have lived with us since 2000 and 2004 respectively.  Snowball was a surrender who is not interested in living among humans.  It is a great day for the girls and Snowball - they will finally be able to live as close to being in the wild as possible in captivity.  I am so happy for them.  But I've been crying since they left this morning.

Katie has been my girl for 13 years.  I love that bird so much.  We've been thru hell together.  She bit me so hard in the chest when she first came to us it took me a month to heal.  She learned to trust, she learned to like men.  She loved to go on PR visits with us.  But something was missing because a couple years back she started to mutilate.  The syndrome is actually called Moluccan Mutilating Syndrome, although it can happen with any type of bird.  She'd get better and then go two steps back.  About 10 days ago, on a Friday, I went to check on her and there was blood all over the cage.  She opened herself back up again.

Lori Rutledge told us that the mutilators usually heal up once they are in a flock environment.  I've been talking with her on and off about this for about a year or more.  When I saw Katie on that Friday I knew the time had come.

Gabby is also a mutilator, and she and Katie have lived next to each other for a long time.  So we decided it was best that they go together.  Gabby didn't like to leave the shelter, if we tried to take her out she would instantly start to chew on her neck.  She took a liking to Jess, who is one of our volunteers extraordinaire, and loved when Jess would come and play with her.  She also loved Steve, another volunteer, who would bring her treats on Saturdays.  However, again, after all these years she was still mutilating as well.

I'm sure Jess and Steve and a lot of the other volunteers are grieving today cuz we're missing our best girls, but we all know in our hearts it was the right thing to do.  Have fun, girls, and we expect reports from Lori in a few months that you're all healed up and loving being in a flock of birds for the first time in your lives.

Lori Drew
 

Katie and Gabby

Katie and Gabby will be going to Cockatoo Rescue & Sanctuary this coming Tuesday.  Katie and Gabby are both mutilators who we've had under control for several years.  However, the last month or so, both have been picking themselves again, so we made the difficult decision for them to go and live with their own.  They have shared a double cage for some time now, and it feels good knowing that they will be going together.  We've had Katie since November 2000 and Gabby since July 2004, so this really was a very difficult decision.  I love Katie as if she were my own.  Many tears have been shed.  However, it's the best thing for the girls, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?  What's best for them.  So Tuesday is the big day.  Prayers for a safe trip and I hope in a few months we'll see pix of them all healed up.  That would make it all worth it.

Saturday Review

Charlie the Jenday Conure was adopted today, as was Peepers the Senegal.  Millie, the Patagonian Conure, went into foster-to-adopt care.  We're hoping that Millie has finally found her forever home.  We had five birds surrendered as well:  an older Red-Lored Amazon with corkscrewing nails; a Meyers Parrot; and three Cockatiels.  Trish and Tom worked on cleaning up the small bird cages and Carolyn and Jackson pressured washed for us today - all the dirty cages from over the winter are now sparkly clean and disinfected.  We didn't expect them to do that today, so it was a very welcome surprise.  We really truly have some awesome volunteers - don't know what we would do without them.  Have a great Sunday everyone!

Paco Goes Home!

Tuesday was a great day for our Alexandrine Parakeet, Paco.  She went to her new home.  Her new owners previously adopted a Pionus and a naked Alexandrine

, so they know the ropes.  Congrats to Kim, Kurt and Paco on their new life together.

Malakai Goes Home!!!

Malakai (Kai Kai), an Umbrella Cockatoo who has lived here at CARE since March 1, 2011, went to his forever home today.  He's going to be living in the Madison area.  We are just thrilled for him.  Oh boy is he going to be spoiled.  What a great way to start the week.

Saturday at CARE

Josie, the yellow-sided Green Cheek Conure, went to her forever home today.  She's been here awhile.  She's one of those birds that we have no reason why she didn't go home sooner - nothing wrong with her at all.  But she's going to a green cheek conure-savvy home.  Surrenders today were a blue-headed pionus and green cheek conure who live together in a HUGE cage - they will be adopted out together in the HUGE cage; a little peach-faced lovebird named Rosie who's mom had emphysema; and six budgies from the same home.  Total birds surrendered to date in 2013 is 97.  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Saturday at CARE

Pepper, the female cockatiel with the horrifically trimmed wings that was terrorized by children, went home today to one of our volunteers from a few years back.  Pepper loved her and was actually cuddling with her - there were a lot of teary eyes around here.  That bird has been tortured and now she has found a very loving and knowledgable home.  Maui, the white dove, also went home on Thursday.  That was one tame dove.  We have four doves coming in on Monday, two ringnecks and two pieds.  Their cages are ready and we can't  wait for their arrival. Have a great weekend everyone!

Phred Goes Home!

Phred, an approximately 30 year old Umbrella Cockatoo, went  to his new home today.  Phred has been with us since April 24, 2012, almost a whole year.  He was surrendered due to his owner having lung disease, not behavioral or medical problems.  Umbrella cockatoos, all cockatoos actually, usually are here for awhile - they are hard to place cuz of their loud calls and being like velcro to their owners.  Phred went to a family with lots of bird experience - we are so happy for him.  Great way to start the week!

Saturday at CARE

Hi Everyone!  Another great adoption day at CARE today.  You never know what the day before a holiday will bring, and this one was busy.  We had about 10 grooming appts. as well as adoption appts.  We had a male lutino cockatiel go home today; Peeps, one of the hoarding amazons went home; Cooper, a bronze-winged pionus with fatty liver disease (under control) went home; and one of our really sweet female doves went home.  There were no surrenders today.  Happy Easter everyone - it was a good day.

Monday

Knew it was going  to be a busy day cuz we weren't open on Saturday.  And it was.  Poco, the Blue-Crowned Conure who has been with us for quite awhile, went home today.  So did Skittles, a dilute Fischer's lovebird.  We had just the one surrender yesterday, a ringneck dove, at the Green Bay Pet Expo, and none today.  Several boarders went home and a new boarder came in.  The boarder coming in today is for behavioral adjustment - she is starting to pluck and we want to redirect her energies into learning how to play with toys.  Hopefully it will work.  Tomorrow looks to be just as busy ....

Green Bay Pet Expo

We just came back from spending three days in Green Bay doing the WBAY Green Bay Pet Expo.  We have a lot of customers from the Green Bay area and it's nice to be able to take our toys and info to them.  We had a great time, made some new friends, sold lots of toys and brought back a surrendered dove.  All in all it was a great weekend.

Snortin' Norton

Norton, a Blue-Fronted Amazon, came to us a few months ago and was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, which is a fast-growing cancer.  He was spoiled rotten while he was here, learned to play with toys, loved his fruit bread with his meds in it, and enjoyed shouting "hi" at us whenever he saw us.  Unfortunately, his cancer caught up with him and we had to make the sad decision to send him over the Rainbow Bridge.  We will miss you, Norton. We really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with you.  Fly free, Norton, fly free.

WBAY Green Bay Pet Expo

Just a reminder that we will be closed this coming Saturday, March 23rd.  We have two booths up at the Green Bay Pet Expo this weekend.  This is a very good event for us and we have lots of customers from up in the Fox Cities/Green Bay area.  We will reopen again as usual on Monday the 25th.

Saturday's Results

Another busy day here - Saturdays have been crazy lately (which is a good thing) :)  Larry and Pete, the fiery-shouldered conure and green cheek conure who came in together, were adopted and went home today to a great lady who had her previous gcc for 24 years!  Izzy, the green cheek conure, went home with a previous adopter.  One of our female cockatiels also got to go home.  Yay!!!  Emma, the Congo African Grey who came in as one of the Vilas County birds, was adopted earlier in the week and they picked her up also.  Because she is so insecure and frightened, they purchased her cage, so she would have something comfortable and familiar with her.  Super nice people who are willing to take the time to give Emma a chance to heal and learn to love.  There were no surrenders :)  All except one of the Vilas County birds are now available for adoption - we will be getting descriptions and pix up on Petfinder this week.

Tuesday's Happenings

Emma, one of the Congo African Greys from the Vilas County birds, was adopted today.  She will be going home by the end of the week.  This was an especially wonderful adoption because Emma is a very frightened little Grey.  We thought it may take months to find the right home for her, but her new mom is a nurturer and will take her time getting to know her.  This adoption totally made our day.  On the darker side of today, we had a cockatiel surrendered.  This poor little girl had her wings totally mutilated by someone's stupidity.  They cut off most of her wings, and she will not grow them back.  She's also missing a couple of toes.  She's afraid of everything.  We put her in our girl cage.  The other girls we have are sweet and were already taking care of her.  She is going to need special care.  Pictures to come but we didn't want to stress her out anymore today - she's been thru enough.

Kizzi Went Home!

Another busy Saturday for us.  But the awesome news is that Kizzi the Congo African Grey from the Vilas County birds went home.  She is the first of that group of birds to go.  We were soooo happy for her and her new family.  We had one surrender/return - a little hybrid lovebird that we adopted out about a year ago.  No time for him :(  He's a nice little guy and we'll find the  right home for him this time around.  Lots of people interested in adopting, so hopefully we'll have a few more go home soon.  Derek built a new shelving unit for us in the back, which will help us be able to store more stuff in clear plastic bins.  Also thanks to Joni who has been organizing our back room for us - that is NOT an easy job.  That back room is really coming together thanks to all the volunteers who have helped us reorganize.  Have a good weekend everyone.

Friday's Update

The last three of the Vilas County birds went for their wellness exams today:  a yellow naped amazon, a double yellow headed amazon and a mealy-cross amazon.  Because they've been here for about two weeks already, they were in much better shape than we ones we previously took in, which is great.  Once we get bloodwork results back, these birds can go up for adoption.  They still all need really extra special nutrition for right now, but almost all are handlable and we're actually seeing some of them destroying their toys (which is a good thing).  We will be open tomorrow from 12-5 if you want to come and take a look.

Today at CARE

Today we had one female cockatiel go home and one scissor beaked female lovebird was surrendered.  We have a bunch of birds coming in on Monday so we set their cages up.  You never know from day to day what's going to happen, so we try to get things done as early as possible.  Derek is coming in on Saturday to put up some heavy duty shelving in the back room for us to store things in bins - something we've really needed for a long time.  We're closed tomorrow so we're gearing up for Saturday.  Have a great evening.

Funds for Hoarding Birds

Thank you to everyone who has donated towards our hoarding birds' vet bills.  We are so appreciative of your support.  We are close to our goal but still need to raise $555 to completely pay off the bill.  This for me is always the hardest part of what we do - having to ask for money - but we want to make sure we do right by these birds and get them what they need to have a healthy and happy life from now on.  Please help out if you can.  If you can't, thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers for these birds.  A few of them will be going up for adoption in the next couple of days - we'll be getting them up on Petfinder soon.