Rojo's Great Escape

13-14 August, 2004

It was the evening of Friday the Thirteenth. The doorbell rang and the neighbour shouted into the house that the "dumpster" around the back was on fire. I grabbed my camera and opened the back door to look just as the fire truck came down the street with lights flashing, siren blaring and the resonant air horn sounding like a locomotive. Poor Rojo and Consuelo who had been peacefully enjoying the view out of the dining room window, were suddenly savagely spooked and flew toward me. Consuelo alighted upon my shoulder but Rojo, my pet of nine years, just kept on going like a rocket on into the confusion and noise outside. I thought a word which I would hesitate to use in polite company. I put Consuelo in her room and went outside into the carnival atmosphere. There was something for everyone. A burning dumpster, a fire truck and around the side of the house, a parrot in a tree. Damage from the fire was minimal and my interest in it was also minimal. Where was Rojo? He'd been spotted by kids in a tree about half a block south. I followed... Where was he? I turned and had a grotesque encounter. I was accosted by four fat urchins, one with what appeared to be mucus matted upon his chin. Each was armed with a cap pistol.. ."Hey lady, give me your purse" said one... Another, possibly their leader, claimed his cap gun was vastly superior to all the others. It was like something out of an old Federico Fellini movie. I walked around them. People speculated about Rojo. Someone else said they saw a peregrine falcon. I returned home and in a desperate act, put Consuelo into a cage and took her onto the roof. She squawked and it was like a beacon to the poor disoriented Rojo. Soon I heard his frightened "eeep eeep" down the alley and then a small green shape flying erratically went over me and up into a large elm tree west of my house. I went onto the roof and called the frightened bird. He seemed to want to be with Consuelo and at one point flew over and alighted on my back. He hopped onto the cage and paced around nervously before flying off to the elm again. I called in vain as the sun set... I begged Consuelo's forgiveness as I lashed her cage to a vent and left her out for the night. I hardly slept that night. Briefly, I even considered writing him off but that wasn't right... I decided that I had to try and recover him... I owed it to him and to myself... Waking before dawn, as I was booked to do an overtime shift, I thought there might be a chance I could catch him before I left for work. I went onto the roof armed with Rojo's favourite breakfast--toast with margarine. I thought he'd be putty in my hands once he saw that! As the sun rose, Consuelo uttered a squeak . It was answered from the elm. He was still there! My confidence in my plan was shaken when Rojo rejected my offer of toast. I begged him and cajoled him. He stretched a couple of times and seemed downright comfortable on his branch. I tried moving Consuelo farther away... I even tried soaking him with a water hose. But it didn't seem to faze him. I couldn't leave him and I phoned work to explain that I would be a little late. Amazingly, they were understanding. Rojo was moving between the elm west of the house and the fir tree around the back. At one point, while he was on the fir tree, a falcon alighted near the top and seemed interested in the green bird. "Oh No..." I thought. I waved my arms and shouted at the raptor to go away. Rojo held perfectly still and finally the falcon flew off. I tried to lure him down by removing Consuelo's cage to the picnic table in the back yard. He lost interest in the elm and discovered a cottonwood tree by the garage. Periodically he'd launch himself on a little flight around the neighbour's yard then return to the cottonwood. Three little girls came by and expressed concern about Rojo. They even made a nest out of a paper bag with the sides rolled down and filled at the centre with grass and twigs. I thanked them and assured them that it was just what I needed to entice Rojo back into his cage. They were polite and called me ma'am. Rojo's behaviour seemed fairly stable and I wanted to relax a bit. I poured myself a nice Bombay Sapphire and tonic (Schweppes, of course) with a generous wedge of lime. I sat in a lawn chair and watched Rojo's flying. He was an impressive little avian. With his neck out supporting his large head, his wings seemed far back on his body. With his tail folded to a point, he looked sleek. I mean, he zipped along like a little jet! His flights were short and he would return to the cottonwood. His landings were not the most graceful, with some of them resulting in him hanging by his toes. But he definitely seemed to be enjoying himself. Meanwhile inside the house a third conure, George the Halfmoon, arrived on one of his favourite perches, the bathroom door. George is an eighteen year old veteran with three escapes under his belt. The window was open to the back where we were. Soon George's "cha-deeps" and "eep-eeep-eeeps" were answered by both Rojo and Consuelo. Rojo began to come down from the high branches to answer the challenge. I moved the caged Consuelo to the garage roof under the low branches which were overhanging the shingles. At times Rojo and I were very nearly eye to eye; then he'd fly off on his circuit and return to a higher branch and work his way down close to Consuelo and me again. I took a few kernels of another one of his favourites, frozen corn, and he began to take them from my lips. He'd take a couple, then begin his squeaking and go up onto a branch he was using as his "diving board". With his wings partially opened, he'd dance while making his "eeep-eeep" sound. In conure language, it seemed to mean, " I want to go flying but I don't know where to go." I liked him to fly as he was consuming energy as he did and was getting hungry and thus dependent upon me. Soon, he was taking sunflower seeds from between my lips and cautiously, he climbed onto my shoulder. Slowly I moved toward Consuelo's cage and let Rojo go onto it. I rewarded him with a seed. I gave him a couple of more seeds with my fingers, each time making him stretch down the front of the cage by the door. Very slowly, with my left hand I'd unlatch the door and hold it partially open. With my right, I led him toward it with a seed until finally he'd take the seed with his head right inside the cage. With one more try I had him leaning right across the open cage door to get the seed and it was then that I acted! I shoved him into the cage and slammed the door shut! A feeling of joy and disbelief came over me, but it was true that I had him back again. I climbed down the ladder, paced around the yard and even said a prayer of thanks. I hadn't realised how much I loved him until I had nearly lost him. Now his grating "eeep-eeep" is music to my ears. Consuelo was indispensable in Rojo's recovery. Had it not been for her calling for Rojo from the roof, God knows where he would have wound up. Patience and my good rapport with him were also factors. Even the cheeky George calling him from the bathroom helped. I intend to keep him fully flighted as I believe it's good for him to have that power. Conures are flying birds. But I'll never underestimate the hazard of the open door again.

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