This is Spring (3rd brood) & Summer(2nd brood), both Foresty and Sunny/Tweety's babies- all grown up and pretty-ready in their brand new cage to go to their new home, to my Godson. He just turned four and all very excited about the two little new friends.
Yes, we did have some unfortunate and unbelievable events that shakes you up! You know that our birds have enjoyed freedom, entertaining us with maneuvers of jet flights of high caliber seen only at airshows. When Foresty- a superMOM- had her last brood of six keetlings (!!!), some friends of ours were staying for the weekend with us. Despite our birds being the center of attention, our human friend had thoughtlessly left our front door wide open while loading his bags into the car. The birds, as usual, took off on their jet swoop and unfortunatly Foresty joined in for her once a day flight exercise. My husband who just came out of the home-office room not realizing the impending misfortune had to be the unwilling witness; he helplessly watched Foresty swooping in, circling as usual at highspeed, trying to avoid the door and flew straight out the front door- into the vastness of the dangerous world outside...!
I was at a writers' meeting that morning, and when I came back the bird cage was outside with some of the keerlings- my husband's attempt at trying to give cue to Foresty, just in case she is flying around in the vicinity. We even left Maggie out in the yard so her barks might reach Foresty's ears, but to no avail!
Our friends have long gone... to start their life in a new city and I curbed my emotions at loosing Foresty and prayed for her and our friends- to find new friends in their new environment. We were worried for the six keetlings of the last brood of which three were only a week old. Sunny/Tweety was flying around the house looking high and low for Foresty and chirping calls that sounded very desperate even to our human ears. It was the most sad thing to comprehend; Sunny left with a brood of young chicks and Foresty- the most dedicated mom among pets I have everknown- stripped of her home and her young brood which she probably was looking for
far and wide where ever she was.
Finally that night, Sunny, the dad heed the chicks hungry calls and went in to the nest and slowly started feeding them and soon he got so busy feeding the keetlings-a blessing in disguise-he did not seem to be looking or thinging about Foresty. But I could tell he has not forgotten her because Sky, who also has lost her mate Nightly by the same incident- could not draw Sunny's attention despite her attempts and chirps. Sunny had turned into a living breathing feeding machine, and to our amazment all the chicks grew as healthy as they could while poor Sunny looked skinnier and skinnier by the day.
Worried about Sunny, we removed the babies out into a basket earlier than we usually do and were happy to see that the older babies were able to peck on seeds and help feeding the younger ones. Sunny, is a Hero among fathers and Foresty, a role model for moms; what a feat... three sets of broods leading to eleven keetlings!
Thank God for the perseverance of Sunny- all the keetlings are healthy and now, that they do not depend on him, he has put on weight and looking his very best and the brightest yellow of them all. The greenest of them all -our Foresty, I hope and pray that she already found a backyard bird feeder and some friendly humans to whom she could trust her life!
They just seemed to have fun as a team and if... Foresty was not lost, they would have produced another brood happily- at free will! Of course, we humans were at their service. These birds have taught us a lot about life and especially the joy of simple dynamics of life; share and care!
-by VeeraMahal Franklin
