New member just saying hi & this is who I am :)

Lee_Creature_Girl

New member
Jun 5, 2012
7
0
20 miles northeast of Seattle
Parrots
2 female Goffins Cockatoos
Female Solomon Island Eclectus
Female Orange-Vested Senegal
Female Cape Parrot
Male Green Cheek Conure
Male Crimson-Bellied Conure

My name is Lee & I'm a retired RN (due to brain injury). I live in Kirkland Washington which is just outside Seattle. I'm married...for the 2nd & last time :) I moved here from Denver to marry my husband whom I met online in a forum dedicated to current events & especially hot topics (controversial issues...politics, religion, you name it).

We became friends together with a handful of other members from that board & would all chat socially together apart from the forum. After a few years, Rob & I started chatting privately. After another year or two, we moved to the phone. This was back in mid to late 1990's when long distance calling was much more expensive. Around 8 years after we first met online, our phone calls turned into daily occurences lasting hours & hours & hours & our phone bills climbed to over $700 a month a piece, we decided we should meet in person because air fare was cheaper than this. :eek:

I needed some relatively minor surgery six weeks before scheduled to fly to Seattle. There were complications. I nearly died. Spent a week or so in ICU. I remember little but there being a phone to my ear & vaguely knowing Rob was on the other end.

Despite open wounds packed with gauze & still being weak, I went ahead with the flight to Seattle. I spent two great weeks with Rob, met his wonderful parents & flew home. A month later, Rob flew to Denver, rented a moving van, loaded me up & I moved out on my two youngest sons (in their early 20's at the time) leaving the house to them to live in as long as they took care of it & paid the utilities until I knew what I wanted to do in the long term. Six months later Rob & I married in an outdoor ceremony at his folks' incredible Victorian home (a home they later donated to the city & it is now a museum, city offices in the basement & the main level rented out for weddings & so on.

Life's not perfect. It never is. But it's pretty darn good despite the problems of the last couple of years since my brain injury, fibromyalgia, mental deficits, my husband's employer losing their government contract this past January & my husband losing his job as a result & being unable to find work & the resulting financial crisis all these events have caused.

The thing that pains me the most is that I know I can no longer provide the care to my 7 parrots deserve. I've been able to keep up with hygiene & feeding, but I don't know how much longer I can do so. More than that, there just aren't enough hours in the day & I don't have the stamina any longer to provide the one-on-one play time & interaction each of them deserves. Especially since I have two cockatoos & just one of them needs me several hours a day & I want to give her that time.

I love all of them so much but of course, I do have my favorites. One of my goffins is at the top of the list followed by my Cape parrot & my little special-needs green cheek conure. But there is very little separation between my other goffins, my eclectus, senegal & crimson-bellied conure as far as how much I love them.

Still, I know both they & I would be better off if I were able to find wonderful, permanent homes for all but those top three parrots. Audrey, Hanna & Punkin. But that's not easy to do. I do have a home for Valentina, my ekkie. A friend is buying her & her double macaw cage which is a relief since I know this person well & know she will be loved & well cared for & that I can even check in on her from time to time. But finding suitable homes when my birds have been used to a unique environment where they have spent their lives with near total freedom in a huge parrot room, essentially an aviary setting, designed for them with jungle rope everywhere across the ceiling & lots of play gyms both hanging & rolling & tons of toys. Some never have their cage doors closed. Others, only at bed time.

They all get along fine except my other goffins, Angel, who is a semi-rescue & came to me terrified of other birds so she is only out (other than when she's with me in another room) with my other goffins & Cape when the other birds are in their cages for the night. She is comfortable with these two birds now but only as long as they keep their distance which they do. She's come a long way & is a total love bug with every human she's ever met. My other goffins, Audrey, is very shy & extremely bonded to me which is why she is the goffins I chose to keep. Plus the fact that my heart would be ripped out of my chest if I had to give her up. I also think Angel would absolutely blossom as an only bird.

I would be equally devastated to lose Hanna, my Cape or Punkin, my green cheek. I don't really want to give up Yoshi, my crimson-bellied conure but he is my youngest & has shared a cage with Punkin since his arrival but now needs his own cage & I just can't keep up with that many cages any more. Plus he is now seeking to interact with me & cuddle lots & lots & as I stated earlier, there aren't enough hours in the day & I no longer have the energy to both care for & meet the emotional needs of all 7 of my babies. Yoshi deserves a loving home where he can become the beautiful little cuddle bug he so desperately wants to be.

Nellie, my senegal, is a really difficult choice to give up. She is probably the most perfect pet bird that ever existed. Sweet, cuddle, funny, acrobatic, adoring of me. and that's the problem. She would love to live on my shoulder giving me kisses & climbing into my blouse to play peek-a-boo 24-7. I can't do anything in the bird room without her instantly flying to my shoulder. So I keep having to lock her in her cage to do the cleaning when she gets in my way or endangers herself vying for my attention or just keeping me from being able to interact with another bird who also needs some attention.

Of course, I have play gyms in other rooms & take my babies one at a time up to those areas to spend time with me alone. But I can't do that for each of seven birds as often as they want & deserve. So as much as I love this sweet, gentle, funny little girl, I think she would be better off with someone who can give her more time.

I chose to give up my Eclectus only because some of my birds are a bit fearful of her. Not because she's in the least aggressive or threatening. She's probably the gentlest female ekkie you could ever meet. I think it's more because she's a big RED bird with a big black beak & that somehow her appearance alone feels a bit overpowering & threatening.

Oh, I nearly forgot. I also have three grown sons (two of whom ended up moving out here from Denver to live near me), one grown daughter & one adorable grandson...plus two dogs, Murphy our golden doodle & Rocky our cavachon. And I have a greenhouse with 200+ orchid plants which is also a drain on my time & energy though I do love them (but not nearly as much as I love my birds).

I just realized how much I've written & I apologize for being so wordy. Anyway, that's me. One word of warning, because of the brain injury, my short term memory is severely impaired & I have great difficulty with getting distracted & following through on things (as well as word finding at times. So I hesitate to get involved in forums any more because I know I will more than likely forget to respond to people on a regular basis. Plus it takes me a long time to formulate my thoughts & type them out. So please don't take offense if I don't answer a question or respond to someone or if I take a very long time to do either. It's not personal. It's just my crappy brain these days.

One of the things I'm looking for, of course, is advise on finding good forever homes for those of my birds I need to re-home & maybe finding someone here who is interested in any of them. And then, of course, just sharing stories & info with other parrot owners. :white1:
 
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wenz2712

Banned
Banned
Nov 16, 2011
5,512
Media
2
1
Hello Lee and welcome to the Forum :)

Your story has really touched the Heartstrings, and I wish you all the best and hope you manage to find some good homes for your Birds, which I am sure you will:)

Keep us posted, and take care :)
 

RescueMe

New member
Mar 28, 2012
373
0
King George, VA
Parrots
"Sparky" the Blue and gold macaw, "Jax" Red fronted macaw, and "Little Bird" peach faced lovebird
I wish you the best, I have struggled with similar issues in my life health wise. I hope that you can relieve some of the stress on yourself by finding homes for some of your fids. Good luck and posting pictures may help you find homes for them.
 

dishgal1

New member
May 1, 2012
718
0
Texas
Parrots
Forrest -Yellow sided Green Cheek Conure, Nacho- Sun Conure
Welcome and I know how painful it must be to have to rehome your babies.
Good luck with the rehoming.
 
OP
Lee_Creature_Girl

Lee_Creature_Girl

New member
Jun 5, 2012
7
0
20 miles northeast of Seattle
Parrots
2 female Goffins Cockatoos
Female Solomon Island Eclectus
Female Orange-Vested Senegal
Female Cape Parrot
Male Green Cheek Conure
Male Crimson-Bellied Conure
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #5
I wish you the best, I have struggled with similar issues in my life health wise. I hope that you can relieve some of the stress on yourself by finding homes for some of your fids. Good luck and posting pictures may help you find homes for them.

Thanks. I will post photos when I can locate them & edit them. A recent computer crash & reformat has made it difficult for me to find many files but I have them somewhere. :) I need to re-read my new camera manual & figure out how to hook everything up again so I can take some new ones too.
 

Spiritbird

Banned
Banned
Aug 20, 2009
5,749
Media
10
6
We are feeling your pain both physical and mental I am sure. Giving up any bird really hurts. We get so close to them. I am a retired RN also. My new living space is very small and my bird an cat will be crowded. Wish I could help out with your birds.
 

ann

New member
Feb 18, 2011
1,323
1
USA
Parrots
1 nanday conure Black Jack, 1 Brotogeris parakeet Whiff, 1 ring neck dove Eliza, and 6 society finches (3 are tame). RIP my parent pairs of societies and my little gouldian finches
welcome! you are a wonderful bird owner and is doing whats best for them. we are always here if you need us :).
 

Mozzie

New member
Mar 20, 2012
562
Media
4
0
Utah
Parrots
African grey (peppers)
Blue crown conure (Mozzie)
Sun conure (sunny)
Jenday conure (Bo)
Blue fronted amazon (Casey)
Hi and welcome to the forum. I am sorry for all the challenges you have had! Life can be difficult at times. Good luck with finding wonderful homes for your fids. I am sure it is a hard decision to make but that you are doing what is best for them.
 

Lorikeet1

New member
Jul 30, 2018
2
0
NC
Parrots
Sun Conures, 2 Nanday Conures, and a Rainbow Lorikeet
I understand what you’re going through. I also have fibromyalgia and have a problem getting my thoughts together. When I’m talking, I have a terrible time finding the nouns I need. I have considered relinquishing our two Nanday, because my health prevents me from spending as much time with them as I should. Good luck with finding good homes and with your health.
 

SunnyJ

New member
Apr 24, 2018
64
3
WA
Parrots
32 year old Double Yellow head
"Baby"
Welcome from another Washington State transplant! I live 1/2 way between Seattle and Vancouver Wa and know Kirkland well! Spent 12 years in the Seattle area before moving a bit south. You story also touched my heart and soft spot for parrots! Long story short I've had many birds but after a move a long time ago settled on 'Baby' my DBL Yellow head amazon....she is 32 ( I got her when she was just 3 months old). I understand about the loss of time with your birds as my other half (died in March) was inseprable with my amazon and "Baby' is still in 'loss' mode but getting better. Your story also gives me hope for another relationship sometime in the future....love can bloom online! Thank you for sharing and WELCOME!
 

Inger

Well-known member
Parrot of the Month 🏆
Mar 20, 2017
3,395
826
Everett, WA
Parrots
Bumble - Pacific (or Celestial) Parrotlet hatched 02/19/17
Guys, this thread is 6 years old [emoji16]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Scott

Supporting Member
Aug 21, 2010
32,673
9,789
San Diego, California USA, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy
Parrots
Goffins: Gabby, Abby, Squeaky, Peanut, Popcorn / Citron: Alice / Eclectus: Angel /Timneh Grey: ET / Blue Fronted Amazon: Gonzo /

RIP Gandalf and Big Bird, you are missed.
FYI this thread was started a bit over six years ago. Rather haunting to read the OP, wondering how she is and what became of her birds.
 

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