Merlin met the fire brigade today!

[Mayden]

So I was trying to sell his travel cage to prevent Merlin from doing some harm to himself but we had him in it in the dining room whilst we were cooking food.

Low and behold, the day I decide to sell it, is the day he gets his head stuck between two of the bars! Had to ring the fire brigade and go to the station to get the bars broken to get his head out.

This all happened after lots of pushing, shoving, oiling his head and neck up, and lots of hysterical crying on my behalf.

The firemen loved him (wish I'd brought my camera tbh but I didn't even have time to put on some shoes or get out of my pyjamas!) and so did the nice taximan who drove us there and picked us up.

So my baby IS okay, despite being covered in cooking oil, which I'm going to be cleaning off him any moment now and he's a little bit stressed, but is now perching on my head preening my hairs. I'm sure he knows I helped him out really

His travel cage has been banished to under the stairs now, purely for annoying all of us! (Especially Merlin!) and it looks like I probably won't be selling it now because of the clipping - will upload pictures later!

I've had a heck of a week with him, can I just have normal play time and cuddles now?

 

[Safira]

I can only imagine how stressful that was. It's terrible.. and forgive me, but so funny (after the fact!) Don't you love it when things work out that way? You want to go and sell something, because you KNOW it isn't right for you... and BAM, its broken, or the thing you were trying to avoid happens!

Look at his head! Aww.. You'll laugh about it later. So glad he's okay!!... were any of the fire guys hot?

 

[suebee]

awww this story does make me giggle some an better as i know merlin is ok!

 

[Mayden]

I was hysterical, it was horrible - and me panicking and breaking down just made it all the worse for Merlin, was having to calm myself down whilst blubbering "it's okay baby". I'm sure he didn't believe me

I'm kinda happy it happened anyway, cage is officially out of commission for Merlin now but I did want to sell it so I could at least buy him a new one! >: (

He looks a state but he's making a good attempt of unflattening all his feathers by just puffing up and shaking, gonna give him time to calm down then wash him off with a bit of washing up liquid mixed in (cotton wool or a pad or something probably)

Some of them were, the one that stayed chatting to us was - I regret not bringing my camera!

He's fine and whistling and wiggling and just being himself again now, does get a little bit scrikey if we put anything 'cloth like' near him after me holding a towel to his head the entire time to stop him from twisting and possibly falling and hurting his neck etc. That'll pass soon enough tho!

 

[BillsBirds]

Good outcome. They can get themselves into quite interesting situations. Glad all is well.

 

[roxynoodle]

Wow I'm just glad he's ok! I'd have been in total panic. Are you ok?

 

[luvmytooo]

Oh my ! What a horrible time for the both of you ! I'm happy to hear all is well
Poor Merlin looks like he has seen better days though
Poor you ! I hope you get to laugh later about this , but OMG what a terrible scare for you Mayden !

 

[Mayden]

Yeah I'm fine, like I said I was hysterical when it was happening but as soon as I got to the fire station I calmed down because I knew that he was going to be okay.

I started 'crashing' after it though, shaking and whatnot from relief, did the exact same thing on friday too!

He's a bit drenched at the moment so trying to dry him properly before bed so he doesn't catch a chill, but he's fine. It's gonna turn into one of those "remember when Merlin hung out with the firemen?"



What I think makes it more amusing is that as I was preparing dinner, I was also checking the adverts for responses on the cage, and on here... then it happened, doh.

 

[luvmytooo]

The main thing is you are both fine now
I wonder what else you can use to get the grease off of him . I'm not sure of this but , will he be able to stay warm with the oil on him ?

 

[JamesC]

That is scary but funny all at the same time because it has a good ending. So glad that your baby is ok.

It is amazing the trouble these guys get themselves into.

 

[IcyWolf]

Aw, poor merlin! I don't think I would have thought to call the fire department, I don't know why but I always hear of people calling them for help and it strikes me as odd, I guess I always just expected them to only deal with fires. It's always a good idea to have a pair of tin snips on hand, you can get a pair relatively cheap and that way if you ever have any kind of emergency you can just snip the wires quick yourself.

Also, depending on where you had to cut the wires, is there anyway you could sell it as a breeder cage? Most of those cages already have holes cut in them for nestboxes anyway, that would atleast allow you to still be able to sell it.

 

[HalfInsane]

How scary for both of you!

Not gonna lie though, the picture did make me laugh a bit. The look on his face, you'd swear he was thinking "what happened to meeee!??!?"

 

[Rio Mom]

What a scarey day for you both! Glad Merlin is ok!

 

[lene1949]

How scary... Glad you're all OK...

 

[Mayden]

Gonna inspect the cage carefully later (like I said, it's banished out of sight for now!) and see if it's still possible for reselling (obviously at a reduced price and with them knowing about it) but since it's going to be going to 'stronger' birds, I'm a little worried of them being able to maybe bend the bar again and hurt themselves, we'll see anyway. It'd be useless as a breeding cage, and he got his head stuck through the actual door bars. x.x

He is still a little bit oily now, we tried to get most of it off him last night but I think it's gonna be one of those 'step by step' type things. But we knew he wouldn't be able to keep himself warm properly, so we put the heating on throughout the night (eurg!) made sure there were no drafts and just kept checking on him, he seemed to cope just fine

It's kinda cute, he keeps shaking his tail feathers to get the oil off him, but his tail feathers are absolutely fine ^^

He was good for the firemen, they were scared he was going to bite them when they were trying to cut him out but after they cut him out he just flew to them and nuzzled them, (mainly to rub the oil off on them, but hey, it looked cute at least).

 

[luvmytooo]

Merlin must have been a big hit with the firemen Most people who dont have a bird or just dont know how much a bird interacts with its owners just like other animals do , are shocked how friendly , playful and affectionate they can be. The firemen were probably surprised when Merlin nuzzled them , lolol.
Poor Merlin , trying to shake the oil off , lolol. Awww , dont worry buddy , it will come off eventually

 

[roxynoodle]

I guess that I'm lucky to have so many tools in case something like that happened here.

Can you buy Dawn dishwashing liquid there? Here people use it to clean sea birds and other animals that get caught in oil spills, so it must be safe for that. I admit, their campaign works on me as I buy it, too, for cleaning the birds' dishes.

 

[luvmytooo]

Roxynoodle , I was going to suggest that, I wonder how diluted it must be to use on birds ?

 

[roxynoodle]

I would think you just need to rinse well, but maybe my mom knows. She volunteered to do it a couple of years ago with that oil thing going off the coast of Florida.

 

[luvmytooo]

I would think you just need to rinse well, but maybe my mom knows. She volunteered to do it a couple of years ago with that oil thing going off the coast of Florida.

You Mom would be the perfect person to ask about that !
And tell her thank you from me for volunteering to take care of the animals that were affected my the oil