Long-lived bird transported to southern Georgia
In her career, Gilmer County Animal Shelter (GCAS) Shelter Coordinator Lacey Crump has seen dogs, cats, pigs, and a lizard illegal in the United States pass through the doors of her workplace.
But the strangest animal she’s ever met on the job is Rainbow the macaw, a massive, crimson parrot.
“I’ve never had to transport a bird to a rescue,” she said.
The parrot arrived at the shelter a couple months ago. But for a long time, shelter employees had known he would wind up there.
Rainbow belonged to an elderly Gilmer couple who were both struggling with health issues. They also owned a dog named Mia.
For a long while, the GCAS would take care of Rainbow and Mia when sickness put both members of the couple in the hospital.
When the husband died, his widow was too old to take care of herself.
She had to move to Ohio to live with family, and her new situation wouldn’t have room for a macaw.
“She knew it was time for Rainbow to go somewhere new,” Animal Control Officer Mitch McWhorter said. “She knew how her health was deteriorating, and she had just lost her husband also.”
If you don’t buy a parrot when you’re young, it will almost certainly outlive you.
You can expect a parrot to live for 50 years. With luck and good care, some can even live well into their 70s, according to PetMD.com.
“This woman had him his whole entire life,” Crump said.
Parrots are also extremely intelligent. Rainbow’s owner could get him to land on her arm with just a gesture, Crump said.
“It’s hard, and I know it’s hard for them also,” she said. “I’m happy to be the person that helps to get that bird into a rescue and find it another loving home.”
In Gilmer, it’s an increasingly common problem for old people to die and leave behind beloved pets with no plan for their care.
GCAS has had people die with no plans for their 28 dogs.
“It puts us in a big bind,” GCAS Director Kelly Pickering said. “A lot of them are thinking, ‘I want to have them to the last dying breath.”
But just a little planning and forethought can make sure your animals have a good life after you die.
“If someone is ill, the sooner we know what’s going on, the sooner we can start help trying to place the animal,” Pickering said.
These days, most animal shelters and rescues in America are packed, and finding animals a new home takes a long time.
Often, elderly people have no plan for their animals whatsoever.
“We’ve had several healthcare workers reach out to us on behalf of their patients and say, ‘Hey, this guy, he’s not well. I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be of this world, and we’ve got six dogs over here,’” Crump said.
While Mia found a new owner in a few weeks, rehoming a parrot can be far more difficult.
Rainbow found a potential home at Feathered Friends Forever, a parrot rescue in Harlem, Georgia.
“If I do not like the place that it’s going, it’s not gonna go there,” Crump said.
On the way, Rainbow made sure that he got all the attention. Crump gave him peanuts every hour of the road trip.
“Every hour, he would get his peanut treat,” Crump said. “If he did not get his peanuts, he would bite the side of the cage, and he would flap his wings and of course he would start screeching.”
By the end, he had consumed half a bag of the nuts.
“He was a little fattie,” she said.