ITHACA — A local couple has been reunited with their pet parrot, thanks to some sharp-eyed, kind Tompkins County Probation Department employees.
What's more, the feathered foundling's two-day, three-block odyssey has made him a kinder, gentler, albeit quieter bird with a companion, said Wendy Miller, who with her husband Ronald Miller owns Emeril, the once stray, banded Quaker Parrot.
Emeril, purchased from an Elmira family about four years ago, accidentally got out of their Geneva Street apartment the afternoon of Nov. 5, during one of his forays out of his cage, she said. They routinely let him fly around the apartment, she explained, but they're careful to keep the hall door shut.
They forgot that day, however, and when Ronald went outside for a cigarette, Emeril went out, too, she said.
When she realized Emeril was out, “I was crying and freaking out,” Wendy said. She immediately went outside and spotted him in a tree, she added.
Emeril knows to return when called, Wendy said, and he appeared to see her when she hollered at him. But as luck would have it, he was spooked by a passing car and flew off, she recalled.
They've owned cockatiels and parakeets, Wendy said, but the loss of Emeril — who could say “Emeril is a pretty bird” — left them devastated.
“Me and my husband thought he was dead,” she said. The loss was so deep that their church helped them buy a female parrot, which they named Emily, she added.
But some of their friends and others suspected Emeril wasn't gone, she said.
“Everybody said ‘you just watch, you'll buy another bird, and Emeril will come back,'” she recalled. By Nov. 7, Emeril had been found by some probation employees outside the county social services building on West State Street, she said.
One of the employees, who wished to not be identified, said they spotted the bird and called to him. He landed on a car, then on the shoulder of a woman who works for the probation department, he recalled.
When the bird began to play with the woman's necklace, they knew it was a pet, he said. They put him in a box and contacted the SPCA of Tompkins County, he added. The SPCA contacted The Journal, which ran an article, with Emeril's picture, in last Saturday's paper.
That day, Wendy Miller's brother-in-law, Randy Ladiu, called and alerted her to the article and picture in the paper, she said.
“I was so happy,” she said. “We were relieved.”
They went to the SPCA, and when she called to him, he came to the bars of the cage and looked at her, she said. When the SPCA personnel also told her the bird wouldn't eat fruit, the recognition was complete, she added.
“I said, ‘that's my bird — he doesn't like fruit,'” Wendy recalled.
The SPCA personnel also told her Emeril was in good health, she said. While he still plays basketball with a small ball and hoop in his cage, he hasn't spoken since his return, she added.
“He will soon, I'm sure,” Wendy said.
He's nicer now, too, she added.
“Now he comes to my fingers, doesn't bite, and lets us pet him,” she said.
She's still ecstatic about Emeril's return, she said. It was an answer to their prayers, and they're grateful to the probation employees who found Emeril, the SPCA, their friends and their neighbors.
“It's a miracle,” she said.
