We lost Lala on Saturday, 30th October 1999.  My husband had an operation earlier in the month. Being physically weak and exhausted, he made a mistake which he will regret for ever. He carelessly opened the door while Lala was outside the cage. He told me afterward 'She suddenly bolted out and just cleared the high wall in the garden. Then I lost sight of her.' He rushed, as fast as his weak body allowed him, to where she disappeared within some ten seconds. We asked all neighbours to look around, and had searched the local area until dusk. After dark, we printed some tens of leaflets and put them through each door in the area. The next day, we continued our search again from dawn. The search continued days and days, rainy or stormy.  We have never seen her again. She disappeared.  Losing sight of her from the beginning became critical. Guide to the Senegal Parrot and its Family (Athan 1998) states that 'If we lose sight of the bird, everything becomes much more complicated.' We proved this to be true. We didn't know where to search, to start with. Her appearance also didn't help. She is a small green parrot who camouflages very well in a tree, hedge, bush or even on the lawn.

By Christmas, we had put up more than 200 posters and put 300 leaflets through doors. We have received 20 reports about sighting of parrots, but none of them was related to Lala. Over the Christmas holiday, we had received further 10 phone calls. One of them was from a lady close by. We hoped this would be Lala. The next morning, we went to the lady's garden at dawn, there I heard typical parrot screech. There was a Senegal parrot happily eating crab apples. We had had numerous reports about this bird during our search.  Senegal and Brown headed parrots look very similar; both belong to the same genus, Poicephalus. I, myself, had once seen him flying over canopy at the beginning of our search, and we had reported it to the RSPCA and tried to capture him before severe winter weather approached. We were glad to know that he had survived. Nonetheless, this made us feel that we would never see Lala again. No one it seems has ever seen her. We don't know what had happened to her. We will probably never know.  Her cage is still there, and I still dream about us searching for her; she has never been found even in my dreams. It took me three months to be able to have an ordinary chat with friends again. I have never cried so much or so often in my life. There have been a dozen of questions which nobody answered in my mind.  We hope that she was picked up by someone and is still alive somewhere.

We have learnt a priceless lesson the hard way, and we will do our best to prevent this happening again. My husband said, 'I wish there were another chance, I would never open the door while birds are out. But, once was already too many.' Ironically Lala was only bird whose wings had ever been trimmed albeit very slightly, among our birds. We initially tried to get her a harness, but couldn't find a suitable light weight one. She always showed the signs of stress when she was left indoors while I was in the garden, and she hated to be in the cage during daytime. We made a compromise. Our small garden has very high walls. After experiments, we proved that she was not able to lift herself higher than 1.5m with the tip of her wings trimmed in still conditions. While she was in the garden, I kept very close eye on her, and didn't put her higher than my knee height. August was the last time she went outside. In autumn, her new flight feathers grew in and she became more adventurous. We close all windows and doors before we let our finches and Kakarikis out. They fly very fast, we know that there is no second chance with them. We were, however, complacent with Lala. We walked a tightrope with her safety, based on an assumption that we are always fit and alert. Being fit and young, I stupidly didn't think of the occasion when one of us, or both of us for that matter, became seriously ill. I knew that the particular door was dangerous since there was no other door between it and the door of bird's room due to the open plan layout of the house. I knew that something which functions as a safety net was needed. But we did nothing for several reasons which are trivial compared to the loss. We now regret this very painfully.

All houses are different, but one common thing is that they are not designed for birds to live in. There are so many dangers in our house for our feathered friends. After we brought them to our house, we had already discarded non-stick pans and had made a window screen for the bird room. But they were not simply enough to keep their safety. Needless to say, we will make our house foolproof as well as birdproof, not only for prevention of escapes but also against accidents. Escape happens to all birds whether clipped or not. You only have to look in Bird hotline to see them. And accidents occur to all birds. If there is anything you can do to improve your birds' safety, please do it now. Don't wait until it's too late. Please don't make the mistake we made.

1 Place the bird's cage in the garden with the birds' favourite food.  You can play the birds' voice recorded, or move the cage of the most vocal bird in your house at the window. If the bird is in earshot, it might find its way back.

2 Contact the following - (Keep records of all contacts. You can notify them when you find your bird.)

• Police stations
• Veterinary surgeries
• Local animal Sanctuaries
• RSPCA  Tel 08705 555 999 (Avoid weekends due to congestion) 24 hour
• Pet shops
• Local bird clubs
• Postman
• Local bird breeders
• Local radio stations
• Paper boys
• Your bird's breeder when the bird can be traced back from its ring number.
• As many people as possible, e.g. dog walkers, neighbours, gardeners.
• Parrot Society - John Hayward  Tel/Fax 01869 325 699

• Pet Search (UK)
• Bird Hot line (World wide)  http://www.birdhotline.com/replost.htm.
• Parrot Link
• Other Bird related web sites

4 Notices on the Radio
We asked three local radio stations, two of them kindly agreed to make a spot news announcement about Lala. When your bird could have flown some distance, a radio announcement helps a lot. We had had a number of calls from radio listeners.

5 Print posters and flyers

• Describe your bird's colour, size, whether it has a ring, whether tame or not, whether it talks, if so, particular words, and any other distinctive features.
• We inserted two pictures of Lala for a poster and one for leaflets. See the examples. Pictures definitely draw people's attention, and can reduce reports about other escaped birds.
• When you mention a reward, don't mention the amount, otherwise you may receive nuisance calls.

Some places to put up posters

• Pet shops
• Veterinary surgeries
• Church notice boards
• Community centres
• Schools
• Local notice boards
• Parking/ Park and Ride
• Supermarkets
• Wooden posts, e.g.. telephone poles

A. For wooden posts and notice boards
We used A4 sized plastic punched filing pockets in order to make the posters water-proof; use them upside down so that all rain and dew will run off over the surface and not get inside. When there are wooden posts and notice boards, you can staple gun to them. Be sure to make it difficult for them to be torn. Staple as many places as possible on both sides as well as top and bottom. A couple of staples in the middle of posters make them more difficult to be torn.

B. Metal posts
If you can't find wooden posts, then you have to tie the posters on metal posts. Cut cardboard to the size of posters. We used clear zip lock bags to protect the cardboard from rain; again upside down. Make two sets of two holes on the cardboard for strings. Put a piece of string through the holes. Then staple a poster (prepared as above) onto the cardboard. You can, then, tie them securely.
 
 

Binoculars
We live close to woods and field where they were useful.

Mobile phones
They are useful when one person goes out to search, and another stays home.

You will have sleepless or restless nights, and get exhausted from long walking. Please eat properly, although you may not have much appetite. You have to be fit enough to rescue your bird. You are also vulnerable, I have read news about a couple who had been looking for their lost bird for some months. There was a phone call from a lady who told them that she had bought a sick bird of the same species from a traveller out of sympathy. When the couple went to see the bird, their house was broken into, and what's worse the bird was not theirs.

You are naturally depressed. Talk to somebody who understands how important the bird is to you. We felt better after talking with dog walkers, pet owners, vets etc. whilst searching. Even after five weeks, a dog walker told me that she had been looking around every day while she had walked dog in the field. When a parrot was reported to a vet in a village nearby, we had three phone calls about it. We also kept watching Pet Rescue just to reassure ourselves that there are very kind people to animals. Don't give up your hope. There are people who are willing to help you and your bird, and know how you feel.

During this very depressing period, Kiwi, Tovi, Peapod and Sweetpea also helped us to go keep going. Their songs and calls brighten our otherwise rather quiet house. Poor Kiwi also got depressed since he was in love with Lala. He knew that she was not here any longer. He stopped calling her, and insisted on visiting her room. He nipped my hand when I picked him up from the top of her empty cage. I don't know what he felt then. I sometimes think that he may be the one who misses her most.