By Josh Bridwell | Treasurer
It always fascinates me what ripples can be created from the smallest pebble thrown into the water. Back in 2007, my wife Brooke Durham was volunteering at Project Wildlife in San Diego, rehabilitating wildlife to be released once healed. From time to time a naturalized parrot would be dropped off injured. At that time, parrots were not released back into the wild, if no one would take the parrot home, it would be euthanized. This is how Brooke came home one night with Hilo, a lilac-crowned Amazon. His nest was blown out of a palm tree as a nestling. He had a broken wing and pelvis and there was not much we could do for him other than to care for him and let him heal. Hilo was never going to be able to fly but we could give him as good a life as we could.
A couple of months after Hilo arrived, a little red-masked conure showed up at Project Wildlife. He was probably only a few days out of the nest, learning to fly. He was found lying in the street, our best guess he was hit by a car while he was learning to fly. His left wing was broken, his left leg was broken and come to find out his jaw would be permanently our of alignment. We took this little parrot to Pet Emergency & Specialty Center to see if anything could be done. We were told pins could be inserted into his leg and wing with no guarantees he would survive. We took the chance and somehow this little guy made it out of surgery. You can see in the pictures just how young he was, he didn't even have one red feather popping out on his head yet. Once we brought him home, he couln't walk and could barely get around. It was a lot intensive care and handling on our part to make sure he was still active and eating so he could gain weight and heal. He somehow made it through those first couple of weeks as we worried about how delicate bones will heal and hoping for no blood clots.
We quickly learned how strong and resilient parrots are. As he grew stronger, this little parrot soon found his voice. This little thing was so loud. His vocalization was a cross between a nasally sounding car horn and a goose. We had recently taken a trip to Hawaii and he sounded just like the local Nene goose we saw there. Our little guy had a name. Nene healed but he was never able to extend his wing. His left leg moved but he had almost no strength to grasp with his toes. He still lived life to the fullest and was sassy. He could be the sweetest little bird or draw blood if he was grumpy. He would get on a non-stop scream fest and unfortunately Brooke once told him "Nene! I said stop that right now!" Nene's eyes zipped in and out with excitement, he got the exact reaction he wanted. He then would repeat this sentence to us over and over. Being a joker, he would randomly yell out "Nene!", or "I said stop!" or "Stop that!" and "Right now!" He screamed all of these, so they are all followed by an exclamation point.
Nene proved to us that parrots can recover from surgery. He pushed us to start SoCal Parrot because there was something we could do for injured parrots. Nene was too damaged to fly but there have been dozens of others that have had simple wing breaks that have been pinned. They have healed and are able to fly again and released back into a wild flock to live their best life. In our logo you'll see a red crowned amazon and a cherry headed conure, that's Hilo and Nene.
About 8 years ago, someone brought in another red-masked conure that was un-releasable. We called him Connor. Connor the conure. He and Nene quickly became friends and he also became Nene's personal body guard. Nene went nowhere without Connor at his side. I recently got up in the morning and went to check on Nene and Connor in their cage. I found Nene lying down, he had passed in the night. Connor was right next to him keeping him safe. We don't know why he passed that night but he lived for 17 years in a body that had been broken. Connor has since moved out to our sanctuary so he can be with all of the other parrots and join the flock out there. He currently spends his days antagonizing our volunteers and being curious about everything that catches his eye, just like Nene taught him.
We just wanted to say we miss Nene and wanted to honor him for his legacy. He was our little pebble whose ripples brought us SoCal Parrot and has saved hundreds of little lives.
By Ashly Cass | Operations Manager
By Ashly Cass | Operations Manager
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
