
The Live Parrot Sketch or The Mystery of the Bird in the Locked Room.
Most of the time, my pet sitting jobs go off without a hitch. Occasionally, I can’t find a cat, or have to take a pet for a vet visit, or I am locked out, and then there is this week.
I have clients who have gone away for a week. They have no pets left at home, so I am going in twice a day to open or close curtains, collect the post, put the bins out/bring the bins in.
A couple of evenings ago, I unlocked the door to the lounge to find a parakeet (see photo above for the offending beast) fluttering happily around the room. I gave a little shriek, backed out, closed the door and wondered if I had been hallucinating. I hadn’t and my clients don’t have a parakeet.
There was quite a bit of debris on the fireplace, so it would appear that the silly thing fell down the chimney. My problem was how to get it out of the house. I opened all the windows and stood at the opposite side of the room, flapping my arms, hoping that it would have the wherewithal to fly out. I was still standing there 15 minutes later.
I had telephoned my clients, and they called on some of their friends for reinforcements (I would have settled for a strong coffee at this point) and the three of us stood in the room looking at the bird flying around, completely unconcerned at the problem it was causing.
The problem we had was that when it flew to the window it sat on the curtain rail rather than on the window itself, so one of my client’s friends went to look for a sheet to see if we could persuade the bird to fly out.
It took some time.
I stood in the middle of the room flapping a feather duster (possibly not the best choice and the irony is not lost on me) while the two friends stood near the window ready to stop the bird flying back into the room. Finally, as the sun began to set, the bird was trapped in the sheet and eased out of the window. Off it flew without a backwards glance.
Phew, thought I, that is over with. Erm, no. When I went back the following day, there was a bird sitting on the fireplace. This time, I opened the windows, and as I stood behind it and flapped my arms, it flew to the window, stopped for a second, and then flew off. There were two more parakeets sitting in the tree closest to the house and they followed. I am hoping that that is the last I see of them.