Meet Treasure, a 9 year old female Whiteface Pied Cockatiel, who is a rescue bird in every sense of the word! Treasure came to us three years ago in the most surprising story I’ve ever experienced. In February 2020 I received a message from a local dog boarding facility, Frances Kennels, saying that they had a bird in need of help. A client of theirs was taking trash out to the dumpster in their apartment building and when they lifted the dumpster lid heard chirping. After investigating further they found a sweet little Cockatiel, locked in its cage, inside the dumpster. In February. Unbelievable! They quickly took the cage out and took her to the kennel as they didn’t know what else to do with her. The kennel is just down the road from us and they asked us to step in. Of course, we were happy to help. When she came to us in a small 16” round cage (which appeared as if she lived in it), her bowls were filthy and there was an egg at the bottom! I can’t imagine the stress of being abandoned (in a dumpster, no less) and also needing to lay an egg while trying to survive. This poor girl had been thru the ringer. The kennel had put out a Facebook post about this which went viral and picked up by the local newspaper and TV station. WHIO came out and interviewed me about the discovery and tried to get an answer as to why this could have happened. I just couldn’t find any reason why this was a feasible solution to not wanting your bird anymore. There are so many resources around to help re-home a bird. To put it inside a dumpster, alive, and locked up so it couldn’t even help itself just absolutely blows my mind, still.
After the TV interview, the calls came pouring in to adopt this little no-name girl. We ended up with nearly 100 people willing to adopt her. Of course, many of these people had no bird experience and were just good hearted people wanting to help. How to even find the right fit among so many was a daunting task. As the little Cockatiel settled in, she seemed to fit into the store routine well and we decided maybe it was best to keep her here and share her story instead. We had a little naming contest on Facebook for her and one of my long time Cockatiel customers came up with “From trash to Treasure” and it stuck. Sweet little Treasure has done so well with us over the last three years and enjoys being out next to the register on days we are open. She likes the company of our male Cockatiel, Stewart, but prefers to sit a play stand apart . She is great with teens especially girls, and has a little following of people that come to play with her. She is a true survivor and I couldn’t be prouder to have her here to share her story.
Check out the original news story here: https://www.daytondailynews.com/.../qk4fEtN1BYQL2soz7mx3kM/
