Christine had been house sitting for her friend Krista in the Nextdoor Shaker Lakes neighborhood and brought Bella along for a playdate with Krista’s two parrots. When attempting to transfer Bella from her travel carrier to Krista’s indoor atrium, Bella was suddenly spooked and escaped to the outdoors.
Christine explained, “I spent the whole afternoon searching for her, going up to every neighbor I saw to show them pictures of Bella.”
Many of these neighbors encouraged Christine and Krista to post on Nextdoor, assuring them that posting on the neighborhood site would be the quickest way to alert the entire community. Christine and Krista followed their advice and sent out an alert to the neighborhood asking for their help in finding Bella.
Within a matter of hours, they had several neighbors offering to help look for Christine’s beloved parrot, many asking how to best attract Bella in case they came across her.
“We call Bella our pig with wings. She will eat anything we eat, so I told everyone that if they found her they could try attracting her with food. But I also told people to call me because I knew Bella would recognize my son and me.”
Bella with “mommy” Christine and family.
With every day that passed, Christine and her family became more fearful that Bella would never return. After three days on their own, most parrots will try to find a human to take them in and feed them. Christine figured their Bella had been taken in by someone new.
But, five days after Bella escaped, Christine received wonderful news from neighbors on Nextdoor. Bella had been spotted at a nearby community pool, about three miles away. Four different neighbors called to let her know that the bird had been spotted. One neighbor even said, “I am looking at Bella right now and I won’t take my eyes off her until you get here.”
It took three long hours to coax Bella down from the tree she was resting in, but Christine’s husband was finally able to get her down by tempting her with some chips!
“We were overwhelmed by the response that we got from neighbors on Nextdoor. We owe it all to Nextdoor and the wonderful Shaker Lakes neighbors who stepped in to help us find her,” says Christine. “We’re so happy to have our Bella back!”
Do you have a story about how you have used Nextdoor in your neighborhood? Let us know.
A wonderful story about a bird that I have fallen for. I am a painter and long ago painted a picture of a bird that looks so much like Bella.