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Echo's Haven |
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Our goal is to provide a free-flight home for formerly abused, unwanted or problem Macaws. |
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My Little “Dancing” Daisy Mae
Once
upon a time, across the ocean on an island called
Hawaii a baby bird was
born. A breeder raised these birds, Goffin Cockatoos
and sold them as pets. This one particular little
girl was purchased by an older couple that lived in
Hawaii .
They spoiled her rotten, at least the husband did.
Other than sleeping in her cage at night (doubtful at best) she lived on
her human’s shoulder. What ever he ate, she would
eat. What ever he would drink, she would drink.
Where ever he walked or drove to, she went to on his shoulder.
Then one
day something came up and they had to move. They
sold the house, packed up their belongings and moved to
California with their
little white bird. Over a long period of time, many
years, the wife grew to hate this white bird and wanted to get rid of
her.
One day
the man left the house without his little best friend.
He left her in her cage screaming in protest.
While the man was gone, his wife called a friend and asked her if she
wanted this bird; cage and all. The woman said “Yes”
and the man’s wife packed her up; cage and all and drove her over to
this person’s house that he didn’t know about. When
he came home, his little friend was gone forever.
I
received a call on August 07, 2002 from a good friend of mine.
She had called and was asking me about taking care of birds, a
cockatoo. A Goffin Cockatoo! She
told me that she suddenly had one. She told me about
her son gardening one day in
Oakland , when he heard a
bird screaming inside a garage. He knew the guy that
he was gardening for and went to the door for a drink of water.
He asked if there was a bird in the house.
The guy said yes. He asked if he could see the bird.
He was led through the house and in to the garage where the bird
was covered up in a metal cage. The guy uncovered
the cage and here was this white bird with a sock over it and seed
everywhere but in the cage and no water. It was a
hot day. When he saw the condition of the bird, he
quickly advised the guy that he was taking it or he would call the
Humane Society. The bird was starving to death.
Nearly all of her feathers were pulled out from neglect and she
had dug a large bloodied scabbed hole in her chest from neglect,
starvation and no attention. The guy and his 5 other
roommates had put her out there to be left alone and to leave them
alone. My friend’s son got the bird and drove it
over the
Bay
Bridge to a coastal town to
give to his Mom since he was one his way to
South America for 4 months and couldn’t
keep her. My friend loves animals and took her.
Her son had the bird for about 4-5 days before giving her to his
mother for keeping. He fed her what ever she would
eat. She wasn’t going to last much longer if he
hadn’t taken her away from those college students.
She was skin and bones and few feathers.
The
woman that took the white bird had her for a while before she had become
ill and couldn’t take care of the bird anymore. Her
son took to the little white bird as she to him and so he wanted her.
Well, going to college and renting a house with 5 other students
(boys) with this bird was a very big mistake.
Apparently some one broke her wing in two places by throwing a book at
her to shut her up. The sock had been placed over
her to stop the digging of a hole in her chest but more importantly it
was to keep the wing in place instead of taking it to the vet for proper
care. They locked her in the garage with a towel
over her cage to die. That’s when she was overheard
and rescued by my friend’s son.
My
friend asked me to come over and bring some seed and peanuts.
So I drove to Pet Club first and picked a
few things up for her and then over to her house.
Her twin daughters led me upstairs to see their new feathered friend.
The bird was suspicious of me at first, a stranger.
The girls opened her cage door and out she came on to her
shoulder. The one daughter came over to me and this
little bird hopped up on my arm and ran up to my shoulder and did a
little dance as if to celebrate. We walked back down
stairs and went into the kitchen. I picked up a
banana and started eating it. The little bird joined
me with little bites of banana too. My friend was
watching me and she asked if I would ever want a bird like that.
I said “yes, in a heart beat but I can’t afford it as they are
$1,400 or more”.
I stayed
for a while longer and she fixed lunch for me. I got
up to take my dishes into the kitchen and washed them off.
I could see that she and her twins were having a family meeting
of some kind so I stayed in the kitchen until one of her girls came to
get me. We walked back into the living room
hand-in-hand. She had me sit down by her sister and Mom on the couch.
One daughter (ages 5) told me that because they knew how much I
love animals, took such good care of my own parrots that they wanted me
to take her home because her mom hated cleaning and vacuuming all the
time for bird seed. I was stunned.
Both girls were crying and kept insisting that I take her.
My friend told me that since her husband had started a business
in their home that she didn’t have the time for her that was required.
Still, I kept asking, “are you really sure about this?”
They all said yes because since the loud-mouth bird had arrived,
their cats were always in hiding or would stay outside.
About
this time her husband walked into the living room and she told him what
she and the girls had decided. He protested and said
“NO!” “I LOVE THAT BIRD!” She
reminded him of his 2 cats that won’t come in and when they do all they
do is hide. He did want his cats back and happy.
So, he said OK. I told him that we would come
over for visits, like 3 times a month. I also told
him that if the girls wanted to take her to school for “show and tell”,
that they were more than welcome to keep her overnight.
So he helped us load her big cage, stand, food and toys.
He was in tears, hugged me good-bye and walked away with Daisy
screaming on my shoulder. I was in tears too.
So, my short visit turned into 3 hours with them and the bird.
She rode all the way home with me on my arm so she
could face the ocean. The ocean must have reminded
her of her home in
Hawaii when things were
good and happy.
We had
quite an adjustment to make at home; another cage to place.
The cage had become her prison in her eyes.
It was a constant fight every night to put her to bed.
She would hardly eat the foods that I fixed for me and the other
birds. I found that by pushing the food in her face
to make her mad to bite it would benefit in her learning to eat it.
By presenting the food continually in her face she would
eventually take a good whack at it and bite it. Many
times she would gobble the food after the initial bite to inflict pain
to the strange item. This went on for months.
I have had many horrific wounds by this bird.
Instead of her just pinching me, she would bite and I do mean bite by
not letting go; chewing my finger joints, hands whatever she could get a
hold of. Now, 5 years later she has quite a list of
foods that she eats. We still battle the “going to
bed” syndrome. I have found that she hates the
colour purple. I have an old t-shirt rag that is
purple. When it’s time to go to bed, I put the shirt
in her face, she grabs on to it with all of her might to chew and loves
being swung around by it gently and then slipped
into her cage for bed time. She likes this.
If I try and get her on my hand to get into her cage, it’s an all
out WAR from the old days.
I named
her Dancing Daisy Mae since at the time when I met her they did not know
her name. Within 2 years my friend finally found out
what she was called.
Over the
years I have found out that where ever we go, be it Orchard Supply, Home
Depot, Lowes, Pet Club, Pet Co, Banks, 2nd Hand Stores, she
is on a ‘Life Mission’ to find her former owner that she loved so much.
She searches every man’s face that she sees.
She says “hello” to every man she meets in our travels.
If that individual does not respond, she screams at them until
they turn around and do speak. If they are game,
she’ll jump up on their arm and run up their shoulder, groom their
eyebrows, eye lashes and hair and then it’s a fight to get her off of
their shoulder or back or hand. She dances for them
all over their body. Sometimes she tries to sing her
own love song. It never fails that she draws a big
crowd of adults and children. When I’m in a Pet
Store you can find us by the string of children following us around.
Everybody gets a turn at holding her as she dances on their
shoulder and says, “Hello”! She has the voice of a 5
year old little girl. She sounds sweet but just try
and put her in her cage at night without that magic purple shirt.
She was 17 when I brought her home.
It’s
taken her 5 years to finally stop digging a whole in her chest and
pulling her feathers out. That is until we moved to
Firebaugh. With me packing and taking loads over to
Firebaugh from
Pacifica it was real hard on
her; Separation Stress. It’s been 10 – 34 degrees
at night in this valley which is unusually cold that lasted for 12
nights this past Winter, 2006. She has stopped
pulling her feathers out but it takes a good 3-4 months for the feathers
to grow back in. I cover all three bird cages at
night and keep the heat set at 60. Both Greys ask
each night, “Wanna go night-night”, by 9:30pm. So, I
cover the cages, turn out the lights and turn down the TV.
I’m sure
that you are wondering how I came up with this life story of hers.
Well, over a period of 2 years little bits and pieces came out
from my friend about this bird. Her original name
was Jade which in Chinese is joy of life, happiness, all depending on
how you use it per a friend of mine. Then one day I
asked my friend how she kept finding this information out.
It turns out that the young boy was still coming over to her
house to see her son that had returned from
South America . They
were friends. Then I discovered that she started
believing this young boy because of her son. It made
me angry…an anger that I had never felt before towards another human
being. Then there were days that I would call to go
over to see her and bring Daisy for a visit. She
would tell me that the young man was over there or on his way there
since her son had dropped by. Her son is a Gardener.
I had to stop going over there because I was afraid that I would
run into this guy. I had some words for him that
would blast him to the moon and beyond. Yes, I
stopped going over there. He denied anything
happening to the bird at all!
You see,
Dancing Daisy Mae can’t fly. After I had taken her
home and had her for a month, I took her in for an exam and blood work.
She was putting on weight and I wanted to make sure that I was
doing everything right and to have that wing x-rayed.
Her blood was excellent and as it turned out the x-ray revealed
that her wing had mended perfectly. Her wing had
been broken in two places; critical places. That was
a relief. The sad part is that as of today, she
still will not allow me to exercise the wing as she thinks that it is
still badly broken. I have tried and have gotten
torn up over it; damaged nerve in my left thumb. Her
feathers are twisting under from lack of exercise.
She’s happy though. The first month that I had her
she said something to me that I haven’t heard since and probably won’t
ever hear again from the entire trauma that those boys caused.
Those two phrases are:
“We’re
going!” “I love you!” I keep
hoping that some day she will remember everything that she could say
prior to her nightmare.
In the
meantime she has flipped over my Brother. She just
loves him to pieces and protects him if someone approaches while he is
asleep in his chair. She will walk through his house
looking for him, a room to room search. He plays a
particular game with her that no one else does and she just eats it up
and wants more.
We go
for walks in this new neighborhood and every one looks at me like I’m
crazy. I just smile, wave or laugh.
You see when we walk; I have my dog (Mamba, a Chihuahua/Mini Pin
– rescue) on leash with Daisy Mae on my shoulder jumping up and down,
screaming in excitement to the world.
Here are
two funny situations with Daisy that I have written to friends about.
# 1.
A funny thing happened as I was preparing to leave my folks.
I had run down to the store to pick up a few things for Mom
before I left town. While I was gone my Mother’s
doorbell rang. When she opened the door, there stood
4 little children ranging from age 3 to 10 in all matching color
outfits. Before my Mother asked what they wanted
the oldest one stepped up to the door and asked, "Can Daisy come out and
play?" Mother told them that the owner had gone to
the store and she couldn't let Daisy out to play without her.
My mother was stunned. The children were so
disappointed. The whole time that they were talking
to my Mother, Daisy was screaming in the bedroom next to the front door.
Daisy is crazy about children. She screams in
excitement and dances like crazy. Now she
understands what I go through when the neighborhood children in
Pacifica came to the door
asking for Daisy to come out and play. I don't think
that my Mother believed me when I've told her about it when
I lived there....now she's seen it first hand. Too
“too’s” too funny.
#2 My
little buddy’s name is Daisy. She’s a little
cockatoo, all white with some peach and lemon yellow.
She’s a Goffin’s Cockatoo, the smallest of the cockatoo family.
She’s about 10 inches long; head to tail.
She’s a cuddle bug and loves to go to stores; hardware, pet stores,
Walgreens and a couple of others including the Bank and Post Office.
(She’s potty trained!) She’s
such a “ham” in entertaining anyone, especially children.
She can make adults melt and act like children around her.
She’s been a real challenge being a Rescue Bird.
She’s healthy and happy now. She loved to
hear her own voice echo in the cul-de-sac on the mountain side where we
lived in
Pacifica .
She even hams it up for herself to listen to even now…if that
makes sense. She’s my “go-go girl”.
Where I go, she goes and she loves to travel too.
She screams at the big rigs on the road.
She’s afraid of them for some reason. Funnier still
…. She rides in a suburban and a pickup yet she’s afraid of other
suburbans and pickups. I’ve yet to figure that out.
My
question to the group is this:
Does
anyone know of a way that I can exercise her wing a little at a time
without using a falcon’s head blind (joke)? I don’t
want to lose her trust and I don’t want to scare her speechless.
Linda
and Dancing Daisy Mae
P.S.
One thing is for sure about Daisy Mae, she is always welcomed
back into these stores and including the U.S. Post Office.
A friend of mine suggested that I inquire at the school for a pet
information day and bring her since she loves children so much and I
rescue animals. When I drive by a school, she goes
nuts as she runs up and down my arm screaming at the window, pecking at
the window wanting to stop and go play with them.