Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 17, 1995 TAG: 9507170106
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's nearly 10 miles as the cockatiel flies from Esther Martin's home near Crossroads Mall to George Michales' house near Lakeside Plaza in Salem.
``He found me,'' Michales emphasizes. ``I may have found him first, but in the end, he found me.''
Tweety was missing for two weeks before Michales found him - or vice versa - and ran the one and only "found" cockatiel ad recently.
Only Tweety knows his adventures in the wilds of Roanoke, surviving among those real birds.
And Tweety isn't talking.
``My granddaughter accidentally knocked the cage down, and out they flew,'' explains Martin, Tweety's owner. The Martins own two cockatiels.
``My husband managed to catch Rambo, but Tweety got away.''
Tweety, fluttered by the jarring experience of his cage crashing to the patio, fled to a nearby pine.
No amount of coaxing or cooing or whistling or adults doing birdspeak - Tweety can say ``pretty bird'' and whistle the theme from ``The Andy Griffith Show'' - would bring Tweety down from his perch.
Then he just disappeared.
Why seven people would run ads for lost birds is puzzling. You'd figure once a bird gets loose, it is pretty much the end of your relationship with it.
Martin's reason was the same as that of the others. She did it to make a child - her 9-year-old granddaughter - feel better
``I never expected to see the bird again,'' Martin admitted.
Nor did Michales expect to ever find such a thing out in the yard where he spends much of his time in retirement.
A neighbor first noticed the exotic yellow bird with the bright orange spots on its cheeks and tried unsuccessfully to capture it with a fishing net. Michales was fascinated by the bird.
He kept an eye on it from his yard and began whistling while he worked.
``I decided I was going to catch that bird,'' he says.
Michales grabbed a handful of birdseed from his garage and scattered it on his driveway. He also learned that the less attention he paid to the bird, the closer it crept:
From a tree in his neighbor's yard to the roof of Michales' car. Down to the windshield, where it perched on the wipers.
Eventually, Michales looked over and the bird was on his driveway, just a few feet from where he was working.
``I went inside and told my wife she had to come outside, that I had something to show her.''
As Michales puttered in the yard, the cockatiel remained on the driveway.
Then he looked over and the bird was gone.
``He'd just disappeared and I figured that was it,'' recalls Michales.
Until something landed on his head.
``It's gotta be that bird,'' Michales figured.
So slowly Michales walked - backward - into his workshop.
Once inside, he slammed the door.
``My wife asked `How'd you get him?''' he said. ``I told her, `I didn't get him. He got me.'''
Then Michales ran the "found" ad in the newspaper classifieds.
``I had no idea there were so many of these things missing. I got a lot of phone calls.''
Martin hadn't even seen Michales' ad. But Beth Bradbury, 12, of Garden City had. She called Michales, hoping the bird he'd found was her cockatiel, Spike.
It wasn't.
So Beth called all of the others who had placed ads for lost cockatiels to alert them that one had been found.
``This little girl called and talked to my granddaughter, and told her about the one that was found,'' explained Martin.
That's how Tweety was reunited with Rambo and Martin.
Other cockatiels still missing:
Joan and Ray Peters' Ed, Beth Bradbury's Spike, and Judy Stinnett's, which has no name.
There's also one blue parakeet named Pee Dee on the loose, but the owner would rather not be identified.
Martin doesn't think anyone should give up hope.
``When we ran our ad, a woman called us to say she'd seen one on Monterey golf course.''
Just as with Michales, the bird found the golfer. It landed on his bag.
But after that, the bird took off for points unknown.
by CNB