The Story of Charlie
Here you see Charlie, our very rare Javah Mynah bird. Sadly we no longer have him. He was being carried, cage and all to the 'parrot paradise' a folly we had created in the garden for the birds. The terrain was bumpy and the door of his cage opened up. In a wink Charlie was out and high up in a tall tree. In spite of all our efforts we didn't manage to recuperate him. We drove around the village with a ladder on the roof from early morning till dark fell at night. We put his cage in the middle of a vineyard where we knew he was nesting in a treetop, with the door open... Imagine the surprise of the French farmer the next day, finding a huge cage in the middle of his land with a sign on it explaining the situation. For weeks I would see him in the distance, calling to me, but when approached, he'd take off again. He wanted me to join him in the treetops. We left his open cage in front of our house for a year, refreshing his food and hoping against hope that he would return, but no......
I'll tell you about him anyway; As is the case with all our animals, we had no intention of buying a bird. In fact, I had always felt it wrong to keep a bird caged up. But I happened to see him in a local gardening centre, he looked utterly depressed and miserable in a tiny cage. I felt I had to give him a good home.
Charlie had learned to speak a little. He said 'Charlie', 'mama', 'hello', but dropped the 'h', like a true Frenchman. He called the dogs 'ogs', said 'cats' and did a beautiful wolf whistle as well as a host of animals sounds.
Charlie ran the household. He warned us if Leroy, our huge dog was being noisy, or wanted to come in, or go out. He made sure I got up early every morning by yelling for me. He was the happiest bird you could imagine, and very intelligent.
Every day he was let out in the sun room for a few hours and had fun, sitting on the table, flying in and out of his cage and parking himself on the back of a chair in front of our two African Grey parrots, Honey and Cookie, chatting away at them.
They listened intently and really enjoyed the interaction.
One day, when we just had Cookie, Charlie's cage was left open and Cookie got in there. Now an African Grey is pretty daunting to anyone, let alone to a tiny mynah bird. Charlie stood his ground, but was making his 'cats' 'cats' remark. That means 'danger'!! Cookie looked very pleased with himself and refused to come out.
We weren't sure how safe the situation was and finally Charlie was coaxed out and put in the sitting room while the entire cage was dismantled to get Cookie out.
That's when we thought Cookie needed company.
We were in luck. The garden center had an adorable small Grey available, a lady, we think. Cookie and Honey took to each other instantly. They feed each other, and one day, maybe we could have had baby Greys.
Sadly, in the spring of 2003 Honey became very ill and passed away, in spite of all attempts to cure her. Cookie was depressed and lonely.
Find out here how Cookie first met Tekno Parrot Pollie, and then................ little Sugar Cookie's Story