Whatta scare!!

[HaleBoppPeachyluv]

Okay, so we have a balcony over the garage & occasionally I will take Sunny in her traveling cage out there when she's got her wings... and we've stood outside very nicely without her cage when she's clipped. She likes to look around the neighborhood & chirp at other birds. She's noiser outside, I think becuase her chirps sound different to her since there are no walls to stop the noise or bounce it back.

Anyway.... we're outside & she's chirping to a mockingbird (i didn't know we even had mockingbirds in hawaii until this year) and hubby, who is getting ready for work comes out to join us. Normally it's just me with her outside, but I think since she loves Hubby so much, she just got too excited. Cars don't usually phase her, but a car went by on an upper street, and she got all skinny and started peeping and walking up hubby's arm. He backed up away from the railing and as he's heading back in, Sunny takes a FLYING LEAP and over the railing she goes!

Without her flights, she still makes some distance and lands near the grass near the mailbox and then turns around and chirps at us. And that's all I saw because Hubby had dashed thru the apartment and down the stairs & I followed... he picked her up and we brought her inside. She's in her cage now beak grinding and snuggled with her fave toy.

We are sooo lucky that there were NO cars, NO cats, NO dogs or anything else dangerous or scary on the road at the time. Sunny will get no more out time on the balcony unless she's caged from now on. *whew*

Here's a pic from the balcony that shows our mailbox & how far she got.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2683/4226546036_bd22257f83.jpg

[CompassionAk]

I'm so happy to hear she's safe,I can imagine how scary that must have been for you guys.

[linda040899]

OMG!!!!! Of course, when you least expect it!

Sunny was very lucky that nothing got to her before your hubby did! A proper wing clip allows a bird to glide to a landing and the updrafts from the outside air current helped Sunny with the distance she got..... :omg: :omg: :omg:

[michael]

OMG!....Makes ya trembly just hearing about this! ..... Thank gosh from now on they'll be plenty more "Sunny" days ahead!...........:)

[Birkah]

Eeeeek! I would still be freaking out. I'm so glad that nothing terrible happened!!! This just cements my edict that Cipher isn't going out of the house or lanai unless he's in his travel cage, or we buy a flight suit.

[Pips mom]

I'm so scared about taking them outside......I always use a cage, BUT when we first got Ivy, she had no flight at all, and being the heavy bird that she is, she would drop like a rock when she tried, so I took her out on the deck with me quite a few times knowing she couldn't get far from me even if she got spooked. She loved being outside with me and it would make her calm and she'd just sit and watch the birds outside with me. I miss those days! Now she has full flight and I got her a flight suit so we could maybe have that back again, but so far she is NOT going for the idea of being put into a flight suit! Maybe next summer! We don't ever get any stray animals around here. A neighbor had a little dog that used to roam free, but they moved, and only twice in the three years I've lived here have I ever even seen a cat outside around here. I worry more about hawks, we have a ton of them. Our deck though is surrounded on each side, by the house on one side and the garage on the other so it's pretty sheltered. Now we also have a gazebo out there so it would be really great if Ivy would let me put her suit on so we could spend time out there with her!
I'm so glad that Sunny is ok. I know sometimes you think you know them enough to know they wouldn't take off, but you just never know. Being outside without a cage is always a risk.

[FuzzyAga]

Thank goodness for Hubby's quick dash to the outside, and a happy ending! Oh, boy. :(

[bookworm0550]

scary!!!!! i'm so glad sunny is safe and sound.

[Flip]

THat would be so scary! I am glad that Sunny was ok!!

[LauraO]

Yikes. I'm glad Sunny is okay! I tell these things happen all too often. I think just about everyone who's had a bird any length of time has a story like this just not always with a happy ending. It's hard to believe how much air they can get when outside, and you almost have to see it to believe that a birdy with a wing clip can get lost outside as well:x.

[wilkiecoco]

I'm so glad that Sunny is okay! :) please think about taking her out with a wing clip though. I lost my parrotlet the same way you almost lost Sunny - his wings were clipped, but he got startled when outside with us, and flew to a nearby tree. After 8 hours of us trying everything in the book, he flew off and we never saw him again.

I never thought he would or could get far with a wing clip but he got picked up by the wind and off he went.

Please everyone think carefully about taking your lovies outside, without a cage - I would hate for anyone to go through losing a fid like we did with our beloved Coco.

[HaleBoppPeachyluv]

Yeah.... it's a real risk. My last 2 lovies (Makalii, Halebopp) were fully flighted so never were outside of the house without a cage. It's my first lovie, Peachy, that got us into the bad habit of wandering around outside without a cage.

Peachy seriously went nearly everywhere we went. He was clipped. We lived in an apartment complex with a small park at it's center (right behind our building) and we'd take him to the park. We'd take him "for a walk" thru a nearby fallow canefield to the grocery store. He'd ride on a halfway pulled down sun visor in the car to the pet shop to get his wings trimmed. He never would jump off whoever (usually me) he was riding on... would just hide in their hair if he got nervous. He was outside nearly every single day.

But Sunny, not likely ever again!

[wilkiecoco]

We used to do the same thing with Coco - he used to sit on my shoulder every day, waiting outside in the sun for my son to get home from school. We would take him to the park, for walks, always feeling totally - and I mean totally - confident that he because for 3 years he had never flown away, then he didn't chose to, or couldn't because of his clip.

The day we lost him, my husband was working with a grass clipper, and he turned it on in the backyard (we were in the front) and it startled Coco enough that he just reacted like any bird would do, and off he went.

I live with the guilt, and the loss daily, knowing that it was my fault he was gone. So now, even though I know that Kiwi would love to be outside, without a cage, in the sun, with us, I will never, ever do that. He goes outside often in the summer, in a cage. I do not want to feel that pain of losing a beloved fid that way again. :)

[Janie]

A very HAPPY ending....thankfully! :D