Finding Buddy Bird

Late last night, I received an email from someone that was kind enough to send me a Craigslist ad about another found cockatiel. What was different about this ad is that the bird was found in my own town, just a few miles down the road. I called the number listed this morning and was thrilled that the cockatiel in question matched our Buddy's description. An hour later, I was meeting the bird in person.

With Sunny, I knew right away that it wasn't Buddy. But with this bird, it was so hard to tell. I felt 95% sure that it was him. (Identifying a bird can be like trying to identify a goldfish.) He looked smaller, was very weak, pretty beaten up, and light as a feather. The folks who found him said that he looked a *lot* better than he did when they found him a couple of days ago. He is yet to whistle or make any of the usual sounds we're accustomed to, but let me tell you....

Like Buddy, this one loves to be cuddled, nuzzled, kissed, loved, and nurtured. If he's sitting on my chest near my face, and I move my head and inch or two away from him, he walks that much closer to me again. He was pretty quick to show affection to me when I first saw him today, too, and was a little fussy when I needed to hand him back to the person that found him for a few minutes. I just could not *not* bring this little fellow home. It's so hard not knowing for sure if it's Buddy or not, not knowing how much almost two months of being out in the elements could possibly change a bird, at least for a little while. We'll know for sure as time passes if this is our Buddy, but for now I'm just going to assume that it is.

I've been pretty frazzled lately with so much going on here but today for the first time in a very long time, after bringing Buddy (?) home, mowing the lawn, and showering, I got into my pjs, collapsed into a cozy bed, and napped for hours with this sweet little bird by my side. Buddy or not, it just seems to be thriving right now on love and attention, and I hope that all the extra love and attention will help it to get back to it's healthy, chirpy self soon:)

On another note, everyone's yard sale purchases have been carefully wrapped, boxed up, and labeled and are ready to be mailed out tomorrow as planned! Thanks for your speedy payments and making my first yard sale a big success!