First date

As usual, I went for my fish porridge lunch like any other day.

I was on my way home when I noticed a small little bird, perched on the grills of a manhole/drain. Stopped and looked at it because of how pretty the little thing was.

Tiny little green thing

A closer look

An elderly man was also walking by, and stopped with me to look at the bird. I said,

“Pretty isn’t she?”

“Yes, why don’t you bring it home?”, he replied.

That wasn’t what I was expecting. In fact, it never crossed my mind to bring it home.

I’ve encountered a few fledglings which dropped out of their nests in my life. Saved 2, but both died in my care – perhaps that’s what subconsciously repelling the idea of bringing her home.

The man tried to grab it and it flew! But only about 5 feet high before dropping again. She’s clearly frightened, so I approached it slowly, cupped her in my hand and started to rub/pet her. I believe touch has an amazing property to all living things (well it could result in immediate affection or loud screams and a court case)

That should send the message that I’m not out to eat her up. So… I er.. brought her home.

The tree and manhole I found the bird at

Brought her Home

On the way home, I made sure she would not fly or jump off my hand onto incoming traffic. She was very still, and held on to my fingers really tightly, so tightly it hurts. Finally got home, and I pondered what to do next. Food, water. But first, what bird is it? Well, bet you’d also guess like I did – Love bird! So with my right hand still available, I woke up my sleeping Macbook, and googled:

“how feed young love bird”

I ended up watching a YouTube video on how to feed. The breeder was great with the feeding, but there was just no mention of what to feed. It was very tedious to type with one hand, with the other hand held tightly by a bird with sharp claws. My next thought was to put the bird down. I tried and tried, but everytime I tried to put her down, she held on to my finger even tighter, hurting it even more! After 20 minutes of getting her off, I gave up. That’s when Liling and Chin wan msned me,

“How come you are not joining us for Transformers 2?!?”

“I wsnt to but i hot a bird. do u habe skype?”

He laughed hard watching me get the bird off my hand. And yea, the bird was not the first reason why I was not joining them. However, during lunch, I decided to join them! The bird came into the picture and became my problem – I expected it to take away my whole day, that’s why it also became my excuse & reason.

Chin Wan witnessed me in agony and finally removing the bird off my hand (couldn’t film it!) and putting her into a pail. I went on to cut up my plastic egg holder, use it as a container and gave it some water. It did not budge, I suppose she’s still frightened.

After consulting several friends, I decided to bring her to a bird shop, where me and the shopkeeper can then decide the next course of action, that means… I HAVE TO PICK HER UP AGAIN -.-

*a few more scratches and pokes* I finally placed her in a Seiko box, thanks to Huimin for the lovely watch, the box came in handy!

Kiwi in a Seiko box

Consultancy

Just when I was about to head out to the shop, it started raining. So I have her in my left hand, in a box, and my right hand held an umbrella, while I took a bus to the bird shop. When I got to the shop, I wandered a bit to look at those birds. I was so wrong, it was not a Lovebird (“What?” Did I hear you say that too? So I’m not alone? hah.) It was something else. I saw a whole cage of that something else, which did not have the blushing red cheeks Lovebirds have.

I asked the shopkeeper, he revealed that the baby I was holding is a “Hanging Parakeet” and that it looks like it is dying. He said it is very hard to take care of it. There was too much information to digest, “it’s not a love bird”, “hanging parakeet”, “dying”. Ok, what was I supposed to say? He didn’t ask any question. What’s next? I have not felt so lost in a long while. So I asked,

“What’s next?”

“Leave it here, I’ll get breeders to take care of it, I don’t want it, just let them try to keep her.”

I paused.

“I cannot take care of it myself?” I said, and right after, I couldn’t believe I asked that.

“It’s very difficult! You need the right temperature, food and everything. Not worth the efforts, and you got to buy so many things.”

“Yes.” I thought quietly. But somehow, I felt the bird and I were fated. To say that I found it, hmm.. perhaps it found me.

“What if I pay you guys to take care of it, and once it passes this stage, I’ll come back and get her?”, I offered.

“No, there’s no such thing.”, he responded impatiently. That’s when some friend of his came in and talked about money and stuffs. They were exchanging vulgarities casually.

I tried to profile the shopkeeper, whether to believe that little ‘Kiwi’ is dying, that “it is hard to keep it”, that “he does not want it, but will leave it to the breeders to handle it”. Or did he want to keep the little bird for himself? Almost symbolically, a customer asked,

“How much is this bird?”, pointing to a bird in the shop I didn’t catch a glimpse of.

“$2,500”, said the shopkeeper.

“What food should I buy? And give me a cage as well.”, I made my decision there and then.

I’m now US$15 poorer with little ‘Kiwi’ in my left hand, the cage in my right, the umbrella – unused in the rain. How I wished I had 3 hands.

McDonalds incident

I needed a small spoon, a spatula to spoonfeed ‘Kiwi’ with. So I headed to the McDonalds where I dropped off my bus home. There were 2 girls in the queue.I placed the cage below the counter, to the right, before I went behind them. Collin called,

“Hey so you are not coming for Transformers right?”

“Yes I am!”. I had 3 hours left before the show, should be ample time to take care of ‘Kiwi’.

That’s when the 2 girls infront, after getting their Frappucinos, crashed into my cage, breaking it into pieces. I could hear the customer behind me going,

“Oh my god!”

That’s what I thought.. The girl was at a loss, she tried to put the small little things around the metal framework, and looked at me. It seemed she couldn’t tell the cage was now upside down, with its yellow bottom, now at the top. I kept quiet, not looking at her, but at the cage, hoping she could just assemble it up for me, or at least just flip it upright. I was still on the phone. It was my turn to order, I asked if they had a spatula, she shook her head, so I said “Thanks” and walked out of queue to look at the cage.

“Ok just get my ticket yea? I gotta go.” , and I hung up. That’s multitasking really!

She just couldn’t get it right, I hung up my phone, while holding on to the bird food in my left hand, ‘Kiwi’ and umbrella in my right. I closed my eyes for a second, took a breath, and asked her to bring the broken cage to the empty seats nearby. My heart was screaming “DUMB DUMB DUMB CLUMSY GIRLS!” , but hey.. she’s a .. what.. 15-year-old teenager, and there were 2 of them. I mean, if I were 15, young and dumb, and there were 2 of me, and this happened.. I’d probably not know what an upside-down cage looks like, and do nothing like them. yea.

Ok, so I placed down everything to free my hands, and re-assembled my new cage, before heading to the counter and try asking for a spoon instead. She offered a spoon but it was too big, you could feed an elephant with it. I’m kidding. I had to try another MacDonalds. On my way, I got a towel to keep ‘Kiwi’ warm. After way easily getting the spatula, compared to the previous episode at the previous MacDonalds, I was finally on my way home… to feed, and set ‘Kiwi’ up!

The Setup

From left to right: Seiko box, the spoon from McDonalds, the pet formula, the cage's food container with the spatula provided by the pet food (!!! after everything i went through to find one..). Centre: a towel and Kiwi.

Home sweet home. Placed everything down, and never have I felt so unsatisfied with 2 hands as much as today. Now, I have to feed ‘Kiwi’ first. I’ve done this many times before, so it was finally something I felt I had control of since I found the bird. I first had to pick the bird up, so I tried my luck and placed my hand near it.

Placing my hand near Kiwi

I move it closer, then it took 1 step..

and up it went! I mean I'm not entirely fond of animals.. but she made my heart melt there n then! I was smitten by it

I fed her till she didn’t want to eat. Then I washed the cage and went through a lot of pain literally to set her down.

Kiwi in the cage!

The shopkeeper mentioned to keep her warm with a towel … but how? So I decided to build her an artificial towel-wrapped nest. After hunting the home for boxes in vain, here’s what I did.

Step 1: Found the box from the 'Charcoal' Coke glass from McDonalds. Mac helps me again!

Step 2: Slot the towel into the frame.

Step 3: Slot both ends of the towel into the hole in the frame.

How it looks after slotting in.

Step 4: Tuck the towel nicely into the frame. You can skip this step if you like.

Viola! I’m so proud of myself. I know, I’m either a genius or insane 🙂

I made sure she was full, and had water in the cage. My eventful afternoon because of this lovely bird. I finally washed up to head for my movies. This is my story of how I found and started fostering of the little green bird named Kiwi – and how McDonalds is more than just a fast-food restaurant! I’m lovin’ it!

Kiwi on the nest. I hope she likes it!