A‘parrotly’ not a stow away parakeet but a stray bird checking out the Crystal Symphony Cruise Liner
Submitted by Steve on 12:23, 21st Sep, 2017 |
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Every year we help hundreds of stray animals find their way home but last month one feathered stray decided he wanted to take a holiday before being reunited with his owners.
Last month the GSPCA had a call from the harbour about a stray parakeet that had been found on the Crystal Symphony Cruise Ship that had flown on board while they were anchored at Guernsey.
It was apparent the parakeet wasn’t a stow away so the crew caught and boxed the friendly bird and brought it ashore where they met with Visit Guernsey staff who contacted the GSPCA and brought it up to the Animal Shelter in St Andrews.
This is the first ever stray we have had at the GSPCA that has taken a trip to a visiting cruise liner and when it arrived we were overjoyed that a report of a similar bird had gone missing and been reported so we contacted the potential owner to come and see if it was indeed their bird.
Bridget Jennings owner said “Alex is 19 years old, which makes him 124yrs old in bird years is an Alexandrine Parakeet.”
“We bought him locally when he was 5mths, he loves chatting but mainly asks for Robert, my son, who he initially belongs to but all the family look after him, he will dance and ask for grapes or apple you can tickle his tummy and hold him very easily as he is very friendly, he squawks and flaps his wings to get attention from the dogs as it makes them run to the cage then he jumps up to his bar and laughs, he has always had the run of the house or conservatory to fly around but never really flew much he just sat on top of his cage most the time.”
“In August a very unusual thing happened while we were away and we had sitters for the dogs.”
“Alex flew out of the conservatory down the road to the farm and sat in the tree calling for Robert, as luck would have it the lady at the farm asked if the bird was ours as she knew we had a son called Robert, we contacted our daughter and she went with friends climbing up a 40ft tree to get him down which they did, so he was safely back home again until last month when he obviously thought he would try this again no one saw him go!”
“We could hear him in the trees behind the house try as we might this time we could not get him and off he flew again and we could not find or hear him calling.”
“I sent an email to the GSPCA in a vain hope someone somewhere would hear him, I posted on face book with the same hope.”
“The following morning I had a call from GSPCA to say they had a bird like Alex handed in from the cruise ship!”
“I thought it must be another bird Alex couldn’t have got that far, but it was Alex as soon as I asked if he wanted a grape and he took it so gently I knew that was him, he was a little lighter than before and he was absolutely shattered, I put him in his cage and he went straight to sleep, for the next 24hrs all Alex did was sleep eat and drink but he didn’t make a sound.”
“Two days later he started chatting and calling for Robert.”
“We have Alex Home, thank you to whoever found him aboard the cruise ship and got him to the GSPCA.”
Steve Byrne GSPCA Manager said “It is amazing where we have strays found but this is the first ever stray to board a ship anchor at sea that we have on record at the GSPCA.”
“When the Alexandrine Parakeet was brought to the GSPCA by the Visit Guernsey staff member he was thankfully in good health and as we had received a lost report of a similar described bird we contacted the possible owner and we were all overjoyed to reunite Alex with his owners.”
"The funny thing was on the day Alex flew on board the Crystal Sympony passengers from the ship were having a Voluntourist day at the GSPCA."
“We run a lost and found record and if your pet isn’t microchipped or doesn’t have any form of ID it is important if they go missing to report them as soon as you possibly can.”
“We have a page full of helpful information for people that find or lose a pet on our website.”
“We currently have a number of birds including parrots and parakeets looking for homes at the GSPCA and if you are interested please pop in between 11sam and 4pm.”
“The picture is of Alex with the owners Grandson Aidan and Bridget has told us great news that Alex has now recovered from his mini holiday on the cruise ship.”
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