Never a Dull Moment
June 3, 2009
Today I was sitting outside in my driveway, on the bumper of my van if you must know. Yes, I am so Klassy. My 14 yr old son was talking to me when he suddenly pointed to the roof of the van and yelled, “OMG, there is a strange bird up there! One of those talking ones!”
I said, “Yeah, right.”
He continued on, “No really, Mom. There is a little colorful bird on the top of the van!”
“Yeah, right.”
I should back up here and say that this particular son loves practical jokes. He is constantly doing things like this. So I refused to get up and look.
A neighbor boy rode up on his bicycle and shouted, “Whoa, that is not a regular bird!”
We then had a discussion about the boy who cried wolf.
Turns out it is a little lovebird, not a talking parrot. Someones little pet bird. Oddly enough none of us know of any neighbors in the immediate vicinity that have a bird and this bird has clipped wings and can’t really fly very far.
Within minutes half the neighborhood children were in our driveway devising ways to catch the bird.
One boy ran home and grabbed a bird cage he had in his garage. Who has a spare bird cage in their garage you might ask yourself. A child who has had two pet birds in the past year meet unfortuante ends.
The children set the cage near the bird and stood back quietly. And by quietly I mean they yelled at each other to be quiet at the top of their lungs. Eventually the bird flew into the cage, lured by the half eaten bird seed treats still hanging inside.
It was decided that they needed to make posters to hang around the neighborhood. I brought out the paper and markers and they set to work.
Notice the bandana that my 10 yr old son is wearing on his head. The little girl sitting next to him took it off of her head and gave it to him to wear. Which is sweet and all, except that the style screams girl. In case you didn’t notice the embroidery and rhinestones.
The poster making went on for quite some time. Discussions over who drew the better more life like bird. Who had neater handwriting. There were hearty disagreements over whose phone number should be on the poster. I voted for NOT MINE.
And then the big one. Where was the bird going to live?
And since the phone number was NOT MINE, I thought it was only fair that the bird go and live at the house of the phone number we put on the posters. Also, NOT MINE.
The boy with the cage carried it back across the cul-de-sac to his house. Then he tripped and dropped the cage a few short steps from his front door. The bird flew out up onto the roof.
We all stood there with our mouths agape. I was going to ask if this is how he lost his last two birds, but that seemed slightly insensitive.
My five year old neighbor came over to me and said, “Great. Now we have to redo all of our posters to say LOST bird.”
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HA HA!!!
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:32 amI was all…isn’t that sweet - the neighborhood pulling together to save the bird.
Then I got to the last part and spit my diet coke all over the keyboard. Not very ladylike, I admit, but ohmygah…it was like a scene in a slapstick comedy.
And you’re a stronger woman than I…I don’t think I could have resisted the comment about the last two birds the child had.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:40 amthoughtful kids! Now, I’m sure the other parents would be thanking you for providing free summertime fun for all those kids…
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:28 amhahah this whole entry is so precious. i love all the enthusiasm they have!! so gorgeous
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:31 amMy god, that is only HALF the children in that neighborhood?! Your kids must be in heaven!
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:17 amSomehow this post made me smile… lost bird and all.
It’s great of the neighborhood kids to come together in aid of a little lovebird.
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:05 amgreat story-my husband and i are still laughing
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:21 amThis is why I love you, Chris, though we are so different: MY first (evil) thought wondered if that was how he lost his last two birds, too.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:34 amMan, Chris, you were right…it looks like you have an awesome neighborhood for your kids! I’m jealous! Let us know if the bird was ever found!
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:36 amThat ending was too funny! I hope they caught the dang bird .
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:28 amWhat a great post.
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:33 amYour photos of children are worth every little peek I take..My daughters peek too.
Hope you found Tweetie.:(
Oh, dear. That’s nuts! Your neighborhood looks like a super fun place for kids! It was very smart of you to make sure it wasn’t YOUR phone number.
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:48 amok are there any other houses for rent in your neighborhood
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:03 amHoly crap, your 5 year old is awesome!
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:04 amWhat a great story, funny, yet sad!
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:08 amThat is hilarious!!!! Seriously, I laughed out loud at that one.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:31 amGreat story!! BOO on the ending though.. I want to know if anyone ever catches him again.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 amAs a bird owner I applaud your saving the bird. I am sure there is some owner out there that is going crazy because it is gone. Please leave the bird cage out in an open place, up high if you can (on top your van?) and leave it open with food and water in it, to see if it will return.
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:40 amBirds that are clipped can do minimal flying, but with any slight breeze they can actually be carried a very long way.
There are websites where you can post finding it, or even just the sighting now since it escaped again. Was it banded? did it have a tiny little permanent ankle bracelet?
the photos you took could be very helpful in finding the owner.
Please post information http://www.911parrotalert.com
I can’t believe the bird just flew into the cage..for some seed. He must have thought it was his lucky day when he got to eat and then was sprung free again!
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:43 amHilarious! Who needs tv, video games, etc. when there is entertainment like that right outside?
Please keep us updated on the bird, lol!
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:52 amHAHAHAHAHAHA!
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:59 amAwesome!
I love their posters. Please save them. I think you have a great children’s book there. I could illustrate it and the posters can be the whole middle part. Honestly! And I think the bird might just come back to the cage if you leave it out with food in it….
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:59 amBest. ending. ever. Except, I hope it’s not the end of the bird.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 amThe shortest rescue mission ever. Too funny!
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:15 amThose kids will be telling that story to their kids one day. Hilarious! And yet, sad. But really, hilarious!
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:20 amI hope they caught the bird again??
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:28 amHilarious! Must share this with my older two boys!
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:30 amOH my. Such a life you lead. I hope the birdie gets home. But it was an excellent afternoon for the kids…
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:34 amOh, my goodness. I am LMAO!!! Hahahahaha! This reminds me of one of my husband’s highway patrol stories. Family hits a deer on the road. Officer at the seen is going to put it down humanely, as it’s still alive, but with a broken leg. Family freaks, says NO! and bandages the leg. (Who knows where the bandages came from). Deer gets up, runs across the road and gets hit by a different car.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:35 amWhat a great story. I love how the kiddos just come together for the sake of the bird. They will remember this forever and tell this story to their own children.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:36 amThat is hilarious.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:45 amWhen I first started reading I thought you might have fallen victim to rescuing a wild bird (I’ve done it too), since Austin actually has a big population of wild parakeets, apparently due to accidental release- http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Community/MrSmartyPants_view?oid=oid%3A256570
Those posters are awesome. What a great story.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:59 amAwesome! What a great neighborhood. I love the multi-age cooperation. And your daughter’s handwriting is amazing!!
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:04 amThat is too funny. When you mentioned that the bird cage owner had lost two birds in the past, I immediately thought, “Oh, please tell me you didn’t give that poor bird to him.”
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:05 amThat is hilarious. And I’m still in love with your neighborhood, how all the kids come out for such activities.
My dad’s neighbors were going through an ugly divorce. They had a parrot. It got out and sat up in the tall pine trees behind all the houses. And it said things like, “SHUT UP!!!!” And, “Anna… Annnnaaa… ANNA!” (Which was the name of their youngest child.)
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:13 amWhat a great way to start my morning - belly laughs! Only you, Chris.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:17 amLMAO!!! If you didn’t have pictures to document it all I would swear that you made it all up. So funny!
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:24 amChris - your neighborhood looks like alot of fun - lots of kids of all different ages to play together.
I laughed out loud at the end - - wondering too if thats how he also lost his birds..
You now need to let us know if the bird came down from the roof…
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:37 amI love this story! So funny. And I love the neighborhood full of kids congregating on your driveway!
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:09 amOMG - had I still been drinking my diet coke it would have been spit up all over my computer!!!! love it when I get to laugh out loud at the expense of other’s misfortune! haha. jk.
hope that poor bird finds his way home.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:13 amWhat a great story. Being previous parrot owners, I thought my husband would get a kick out of the rescue story. So I mentioned your post to him as we sit here with our laptops (our usual morning routine). Then when I got to the ending I totally almost lost it, laughing so hard, hanging onto the swig of coffee I had just sipped! Great post . . . hope the real ending is that the bird comes back and the owner is found! Please do keep us up on this saga!
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:44 amoh, I love that. Thanks for the laugh! Kids = Blog Fodder. Gotta love em’
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:52 amWhat a fun place you’ve moved to! Oh, and that rhinestoned/embroidered bandanna? It screams “Pirate!”
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:55 amI truly laughed out loud!
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:09 pmPlease Mom get it right! Once the bandana left the girls head and landed on your sons, the embroidery became thread art and the rhinestones turned to bling.
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:23 pmThat story just made my day! Thanks!
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:53 pmhow funny!!
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:53 pmI’m not sure which part of the story I love the best, but it made my day!
(Side note: It’s good to know that neighborhoods like that still exist. Once your house in CT is sold, I’ll bet you’ll consider buying a house in your current neighborhood.)
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:04 pmThat is a riot! At least it kept them busy for awhile!
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:25 pmThere are a lot of free range parrots in Austin. Near UT there is a whole colony that has been there for I think at least 30 years.
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:31 pmI my goodness! What a story! And did you ever recatch the bird??
June 3rd, 2009 at 2:56 pmLook at those tanned children! We would literally GLOW if placed beside them. And where can I get a bandana like that, I have never seen one quite like it?
I don’t think I can tell you how much I love the picture of all the kids sitting in your driveway making posters.
That one with the girl in the High School Musical shirt in the background?
Yeah, that one.
Looks like the kind of photo you’d see in a college recruitment brochure. (You know, for REALLY YOUNG college students. But still.)
No wonder everybody wants to move to your neighborhood!
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:07 pmLOVE the ending… well, not losing the bird again, but having the redo the posters
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:37 pm-The children set the cage near the bird and stood back quietly. And by quietly I mean they yelled at each other to be quiet at the top of their lungs.–
I’ve been subbing since getting my (later in life) teaching certificate. These sentences first made me laugh and then made me sigh and have to rest my head on the table for a moment.
Every single day, many many times: “It’s not helpful to be louder than the person you are telling to be quiet.”
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:11 pmI love reading your blog. You have the most interesting posts ever! It’s so nice that the kids are outside playing and not indoors. Even the posters were made OUTSIDE!!!
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:11 pmLOL! What a cute thing for her to say!
You could try a honey stick. Roll it in seed and stick it somewhere. That’s how we always caught parakeets, lovebirds, cockatiels, and the like gone astray. It’s probably not good for them, but they could never resist.
That said, I just realized how much I sound like a crazy bird person. So I take it all back.
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:27 pmYour neighborhood looks like such fun! What a wonderful find for your family.
Speaking of lovebirds: My brother, Ned, got a lovebird once as a kid, whom he named Fred (no joke - he was 9). We initially thought he was mean, but when he laid an egg, we realized his horrid behavior was plain ol’ bitchiness…we had been warned to stay away from girl birds, and what did we end up with? The world’s WORST bird. The pet store refused to take it back, so what did my dad do? Left it on their doorstep (cage and all) a few minutes before they opened.
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:29 pmHehehe…
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:06 pmMy brother once earned two lovebirds for shovelling a neighbor’s driveway. My mother, however, had never given her permission for the lovebirds, and one day she told my brother that she had given them back to the neighbors. Personally, I knew that the guy had given them away because he didn’t want them, and would never have accepted them back. I never did find out what had happened to them. I wonder if your bird was acquainted?
Too sweet. You’re so lucky to have all those kids in your neighborhood. Wow.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:10 pmthat is the best story ever.
I was so in love with all the kids making the posters and could totally hear them screaming to each other to be quiet. awesome.
and then to lose the bird. just too too much. what a fun-filled life you lead.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:41 pmLovebirds are indeed talking parrots! Just little tiny ones.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:51 pmPriceless. I love your blog — this post reminds me of a story my parents told about when they saved a little rabbit from the mouth of their cat. The rabbit was running away when out of the sky swooped a giant hawk who picked up the bunny in its talons and flew off. My parents gasped and watched in horror.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:51 amMichaela,
Did you happen to have “chicken” for dinner that night?
June 4th, 2009 at 7:28 amWonderful story!
June 4th, 2009 at 8:56 amThat is hysterical. Some days your stories of the children and the pictures that go along with the stories leave me laughing for days!
June 4th, 2009 at 8:59 amROFL! The ending made the whole story fantastic.
The bird must be growing out the clipping.
June 4th, 2009 at 11:44 amHilarious. While reading and looking at the pictures I was thinking about how I love when these things happen in neighborhoods be it a lost dog or car or even a bird. How nice it is to see the concern on the kids faces and how they worry about how much the pet owner must be missing the pet and then bam…the end of your story. So funny and sad at the same time!!
June 4th, 2009 at 2:02 pmThat is so funny and wonderful. I just reconnected with 3 “kids” (40+ years old now) from my childhood neighborhood on Face Book. What memories we have. Your kids are very fortunate to have these times. You are so wise to document them.
June 4th, 2009 at 2:53 pmSo cute, and so well written and photographed. This post should be in a contest somewhere.
June 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pmUnlike some of your other posters, I did not nearly spit a Diet Coke all over my screen…Bartles & Jaymes, however, came very close!!
How DO you manage to always capture every moment on film? You amaze me!!
June 5th, 2009 at 11:15 pmThat is SO funny. And as the owner of birds, we have a spare cage in the garage, too.
June 5th, 2009 at 11:44 pmMy husband had to come upstairs to see what I was laughing so hard about! I might add that belly laughing (given my age and the avoidance of those darned kegels after the births of babies) can be a very dangerous thing. Luckily, I had just GONE to the bathroom! I loved it!
June 6th, 2009 at 12:37 pmPoor bird! He was probably all happy to be caught. Til he got thrown to the pavement. I bet he was thinking “you dork! I trusted you!”
June 7th, 2009 at 8:47 pm