News from Aug 16, 2010

Here is the story of one eventful rescue transport - volunteers' names have been changed to protect their identities in this escapade.

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A volunteer (we'll call her Joan) was moving Cassidy, a 27-yr-old cockatoo, late at night from his surrender in Los Altos to another volunteer's home in Vacaville, so Cassidy could get some rest before making the second half of his journey the next day with yet a third volunteer.

While Joan was bee-bopping down the freeway, Cassidy seized the moment to remove the lock and open his carrier door.  Knowing that Cassidy was fully flighted Joan did the best thing possible - she pulled off the road and called Mickaboo's cockatoo coordinator for help while keeping the doors closed.  A mano-a-mano attempt to snag Cassidy with a jacket failed as he did a cockatoo wiggle to get himself into a position behind his cage which Joan could not safely reach.  Joan called the cockatoo coordinator back when she was chatting online with Mickaboo's Sacramento area coordinator. The Sacto coordinator knew of another volunteer (we'll call her Jenny) in the general area of where the car was parked, so the scramble was on to find Jenny's phone number.  Poor Jenny didn't know what was happening when some strange lady called her at 10:30 at night.

Jenny and her spouse sped to where Joan was parked and managed to lasso Cassidy, place him back into his carrier, and then secure it with two locks, a bungee cord and zip ties........ All remained well for the rest of the drive to Vacaville that ended well after midnight.  Where a wing trim immediately took place.

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All's well that ends well!  This event epitomizes the teamwork which makes our rescue work possible.  Sign up here to join the team!