The Amazing Interstate: The Rescue of Ben the Baby African Grey
© 1996 Sybil Erden, Phoenix Arizona - August 26

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When Margaret Ann called me first thing in the morning, she asked whether I had been on the Internet, on the Macaws list we both subscribe to. I told her no, I hadn't.

"You have to see the post from Elaine," she vehemently told me. "I am so angry! Something has to be done!"

Margaret Ann is one of my dearest friends, and my "best-bird-friend" here in Phoenix. She is the one who would take my birds, and I hers, in any emergency. But I was very surprised. I had never heard Margaret Ann express any anger before. So I stopped feeding my birds, turned on the computer, called up my Internet server and collected my e-mail...

In the post that Elaine had written, which had Margaret Ann so upset, Elaine reported that there was an injured, unweaned baby African Grey parrot in a pet store in Bend, Oregon. The partially feathered baby bird was in a tiny budgie-sized cage with some ring neck parakeets. It was too young to perch, was crying and begging for food, and had a broken foot. One of the baby's toes was swollen to twice normal size. The store clerk told Elaine that they were "waiting for the toe to fall off." And the owners, according to Elaine, were unwilling to get the bird medical attention. Elaine was beside herself, at a loss as to what to do to help the bird. Although she wanted to, she did not have the money to buy the bird which, even in it's pitiful condition, was for sale for $1300.

After reading the post, I called Margaret Ann back. It was then that this normally placid, even tempered, quiet little woman, forcefully announced to me thatshe was going to do whatever she could to "get the bird out" of there.

Margaret Ann called the pet store that same morning and got whatever information she could. The owner was not in, but Margaret Ann was able to speak with theowner's husband.

Yes, she was told, there was a baby Congo African Grey there....6 or 7 weeks old. Yes, it was available for sale, even though it was still being fed three timesa day. "By the way..." Margaret Ann was told, it had a previously broken toe, but the owner's husband stated that it was healed up. Margaret Ann asked whether there was any room for negotiation in the price of $1300. No, even though the owner's husband acknowledged that the bird's foot was "deformed," the price was firm. He wanted to know whether the foot abnormality mattered to her. Margaret Ann, in her calm and coolfashion told him, no, it was OK, and that she would have someone come in within a day orso to pick up the baby for her.

In the meanwhile some of the other people on the Macaws list, unaware of Margaret Ann's rescue intentions, went into a feeding frenzy and began a telephone harassment campaign, which caused the pet store owners to take the baby African Grey outof the shop and bring it to their home. Within hours the besieged pet store had taken their telephone off the hook.

Besides posting to all of us on the Macaws list, Elaine, called the Animal Control people in Bend to little avail. She was told here was nothing they could do about the baby, although after a visit to the store, they issued a citation for dirty cages and dirty water.

Over the next few days, Margaret Ann and Elaine were in cyber and voice communication. I did what I could to help by posting to the Macaws list, as well as relaying the story to the other lists I am on (Cockatoo-L, Bird-Tech, Special Parrots) trying to find other people in the South Oregon area who might be able to check on thesituation and go into the store unnoticed. Elaine was banished from the pet store by the owners. If Margaret Ann was to rescue the baby, we would need additional help.

Then a small miracle happened. A woman new to the Internet, who was unsure how she even found herself of the Cockatoo list, came on line the day I posted, and received my post. Charlotte read my post and e-mailed back to me that she lives 15 miles from Bend! She knew the store and the owners because she had bought a bird from them a number of years ago. I put Charlotte and Margaret Ann in touch with one another and they decided that Charlotte would check out the situation the next day.

The following morning, after speaking with Margaret Ann, Elaine, and me, Charlotte drove into Bend and visited the pet store. The citation worked; the store had been cleaned up. But neither the little bird nor the store owner were there. The owner's husband said that the baby was at their home and that the owner would call Charlotte. Then they could get together for Charlotte to see the bird.

All day Charlotte waited for the call from the pet store owner. Margaret Anne waited. Elaine waited. I waited. Finally at 3 PM Charlotte called us. The store owner was ready to show Charlotte the bird. When I spoke to Margaret Ann a few hours later, I was told that the baby looked fat and healthy and was eating well. The store owner and Margaret Ann, had spoken on the phone and the owner was in tears over the situation; the baby and its foot, the calls from irate Internet readers, the visit from the Animal Control people. But even though the situation did not sound as immediately grim as it did at first, Margaret Ann felt that the baby definitely needed to get out of the store and get here where it could get proper medical attention and into a stable environment.

Margaret Ann gave her credit card number to the store owner, and the baby was transferred Charlotte. The owner was so glad to get rid of her problem that she gave Charlotte a "free" jar of hand-feeding formula. Charlotte knew how to hand-feed the bird and would keep it at her home a few hours until could Elaine could pick it up later in the evening. Elaine had agreed to drive the bird to Portland, 275 miles from her home in Bend, the following weekend, and would keep the baby bird at her home until then.

In the meanwhile the rescue was generating lots of Internet interest. People from all over the country were contacting us offering emotional support, well wishes, prayers, even financial help. Ultimately people who we had never met, some of whom had never written to us before, sent Margaret Ann over $400 to help off-set her mounting costs incurred during the rescue of the baby Grey.

During the remainder of the week, Margaret Ann looked into which airlines had non-stop flights from Portland to Phoenix, and had counter-to-counter service. Alaska Airlines had both the service and the flight needed. After Margaret Ann made numerous calls to the airlines, travel agents etc., it was arranged for the baby to be shipped on Alaska Airlines, Flight 88, from Portland. It would arrive in Phoenix on Saturday August third, 1996, at seven in the evening.

All that Saturday, Margaret Ann and I were on pins and needles. Elaine had called her from the airport in Portland. Alaska Airlines had lost the reservation as well as Margaret Ann's credit card number paying for the trip. After a number of calls (fortunately Margaret Ann had written down the names of the folks she had originally spoken to) including calls made by the people in Portland to supervisory personnel on vacation and on their days off, special arrangements were made so that the bird could be send and Margaret Ann would pay in Phoenix. Normally Alaska Airlines does not have a way to ship Gold Streak (their counter-to-counter shipping service) COD, but after hearing the story, special provisions were thankfully made.

Time crept by. Both Margaret Ann and I were queasy. We ate antacids.

At 5 PM Margaret Anne and I spoke again. She had heard from Elaine: the baby had been hand carried onto the plane and was on his way.

There was a substantial reception committee at the airport. Margaret Ann, her husband Fred and a young friend who was visiting their home... and of course yours truly with camera, Pedialite, and a feeding syringe in hand.

At 6 PM I left the house for the airport, 10 minutes away. Half way there I turned back. Not knowing what sort of shipping crate the bird would be in, I decided to get some tools and screw drivers, "just in case" they were needed. I arrived at the airport, parked and was in the terminal at 6:20. Margaret Anne and crew had been there for almost a half an hour. But no one else was there. The baggage area was empty, the carousels still, and the Gold Streak office locked. Fred and Margaret Ann had been upstairs to check with the reservations desk. No one at Alaska Airlines knew precisely where the bird was going to be delivered. Maybe in the terminal. Maybe at cargo. Margaret Ann told them it had better be in the terminal. I could only imagine her glaring at them!

We waited and talked and finally it was 6:56. The plane had landed. A lady showed up to unlock the Gold Streak office.

"Are you with Alaska Airlines?" we asked in unison.

She said yes, looking at our anxious faces. We told her about the bird, and Margaret Ann told her about the lost reservation and papers. And another minor miracle occurred. The woman said that Margaret Anne had already been through too much aggravation and that Alaska Airlines was going to waive the fees! The baby's plane flight was free!

At that point I told her that this was a rescue and that this baby was only a few weeks old. Margaret Ann told her about the week, the story about the injured little bird 2500 miles away, the wonderful folks on the Internet, the whole story tumbled out in rather disjointed stereo. The Alaska Airlines lady nearly cried!

When we told her that I would be writing this story, she said "You mean I might get my name in print?" and grinned warmly. I got her name (Debi Kowalski) and took her picture. She is a Customer Service Agent, she told me. Then she called the men unloading the plane and asked them to get the bird up to the terminal. Debi pointed us to the elevator that the bird would be coming up on.

Fifteen minutes later a man arrived with two kennels.... One contained a puppy..... and the other kennel had the baby bird.

And what a cute baby! Elaine had done a wonderful job. The baby was all comfortable, seated on a brand new royal blue towel. And to fulfill the airline's regulations which stated that the carrier "must have a perch", there was a tiny manzanita perch laying on the towel next to the tiny bird.

Since it had been suggested not to feed the bird before shipping (baby Greys are renown for the propensity for regurgitating) the baby was hungry. We were pleased to see that he was sweet and curious and alert. And in checking him over it was immediately noted that one toe was definitely gone.

We went back to Debi Kowalski's office where she took the paperwork so that she could have the fee waived. Debi oohed and aahed over what a beautiful bird he was. We were most pleased to give her a brief education in Aviculture.

Margaret Ann and Fred had a long drive home. But later she called me when the baby was fed, cleaned up and settled into his new home. Soon he spent his first night sleeping in Phoenix.

Ultimately Margaret Ann named the little rescued Congo Grey "Ben", for the benefactors on the list, whose time, action, well wishes and financial support brought him from his less-than-ideal beginnings in a dirty pet store, to his new and loving home in Phoenix.

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