Ollie Excapes

It was a pretty good Christmas Eve. We had just returned from a party. Upon entering my room, I glanced causally into the bird cage. Kiki was sitting contentedly on her perch. Ollie was.... missing! I had forgotten to lock the cage door.

Ollie is my little escape artist, in fact, I have to keep a heavy book on top of the nest box to keep Ollie in. Since he escaped so often before I came up with the idea to cover the nest box, I knew his normal hiding places.

Behind the dresser? Not there. Under the dresser? Not there. The window in my brother's room? Not there either. Kiki started giving her 'contact call'. This is how I often find Ollie, because I can hear the two chirping back and forth. But this time there was no reply from Ollie.

I desperately searched in all the rooms upstairs. Surly he wouldn't fly into the dark, cold basement, but I looked there anyway. Not a sign of my precious parrot anywhere. A horrible thought occurred to me, and I checked Spock's kennel. There were no signs of Ollie being eaten. Kiki gave another burst of contact calling, and then she was silent. There was still no reply from Ollie.

Mom found a YouTube video of a parakeet making noise, and I walked all over the house with the video playing on the iPad, upstairs and downstairs, hoping that the video would stimulate Ollie to chirp, but only Kiki replied. I can alway tell the two apart.

Suddenly, Dad said, "Here he is." Sure enough, Ollie was flying around the living room. I caught Ollie quickly and returned him to his cage.

Moral: Never leave cage doors open if you aren't at home.