Just curious - what kind of bird are we talking about?
It’s called a conure, it’s like a kind of parrot.
And, to be fair, I can see getting pissed off at them because they can be noisy little fuckers, but that’s like Fact #1 of owning a bird, they’re noisy AF, destructive AF, messy AF and will be neurotic AF if you don’t rise above all these factors and give the little dorks what they need as social critters. If you can’t do that, you should not have a bird.
Birds are horrible as anything other than food. Ifit was a decent bird, like a penguin or a bat, I could see the problem but otherwise you should just flush it.
Think large parakeets or small parrots, whichever ones you’re more familiar with.
You’re a bad person, but funny.
Paulie is still here and nobody’s been able to get hold of that woman. Animal Welfare had been trying as well.
^ Word.
Birds make noise. Unhappy birds make even more noise. They can be very destructive. They are messy between nesting behaviors, destructive tendencies, and needing to poop every 20 minutes. And yes, if they are not properly cared for, including their social needs, they’ll be neurotic or worse.
If you can’t tolerate noise, can’t handle cleaning up after them, can’t properly restrain them so they don’t destroy your property, can’t provide them a place to eat and poop, and can’t be bothered to pay attention to them don’t own a bird.
Me, I used to play bagpipes and married a guy who played and taught the pipes so I can tolerate a lot of noise, one of my first jobs was shoveling literal horseshit and I view cleaning up after my pets like wiping my own ass after I shit, a necessary if unpleasant chore that when done regularly makes life overall better, I have ample cages to keep them away from things they shouldn’t be investigating, and I actively enjoy spending time with them socializing, training, and playing with them so I have sane, happy, healthy birds and I’m happy to have them (most days 
)
And, oh yes, if you own birds at some point you’ll get bit. Just like if you own cats at some point you’ll get scratched (unless you amputate part of their toes, in which case the cat is more likely to bite because that will be his only defense left). Birds are gonna be birds, if you can’t tolerate perfectly normal bird behavior don’t have a bird.
Birds can be trained like any other animal if you’re good at training them. You have to understand their psychology. You can learn a lot from birds. I’m an ornithologist. Ornithologist, philatelist, philanthropist!
In all seriousness, no I am not actually an ornithologist, but I have had a number of pet birds when I was younger. Never really had any problems with any of them. One was a cockatoo, one was a green Quaker Parrot. You could let them out of their cage to fly around, they’d come back to you eventually, but not make too much trouble flapping around or going to the bathroom on anything. Put them back in the cage, and they would be content there, as long as you kept them fed.
On the other hand, they would bite you if you got your hand too close to the beak, but it’s easy to avoid doing that if you have decent hand-eye coordination.
Birds are extremely intelligent. Is there any animal in the world that’s capable of moving in a precise formation, like fighter planes? I don’t think so. And to traverse whole nations this way and travel to a precise point on the planet - I’m in awe of the capabilities of birds. How could anyone fucking abuse a bird?
“Paulie”? Really?
White, whole wheat, or rye?
Sorry; I couldn’t pass that one up.
A rye comment indeed.
How do you know that she hits it and pulls its tail? Has anyone seen her do it that would be willing to report the behavior?
Take it to the vet for a check-up if you haven’t already. And if it were me, I’d call the police non-emergency number and report this woman who gave you this bird yadda, yadda, yadda, and now won’t stop harassing you about it. IME when police don’t know who to believe, he who reports first wins.
This.
But since I’m unable to post one-word posts, the anecdote:
Idiot Boy, a dog, got out last week, got picked up by the cops, who gave me a ticket. This morning he got out again and they took him to a vet’s. He was a gift from my SIL who was moving and couldn’t keep him, but had been chipped which led the vet to call SIL’s SIL, who is local, who called SIL, who called my oldest to tell her that he was safe. SIL made Oldest worried that we would have trouble convincing anybody that he was our dog since there was no paperwork describing the transfer, but no, the Twins took the Little Girls to the cop station, affirmed that he is their dog, took the paperwork to the vet, reaffirmed that he is theirs, and took all three to Pet Smart to get up to date tags and free dog biscuits from the staff.
I’m beginning to think he likes riding in cop cars.
Maybe he was a cop in a former life;)
My random two cents:
A)Hand it over to Animal Control. Tell them that you can’t afford to have any legal issues with this woman and ask them to return it for you. At the same time, tell them that if they can’t get it to her, you’ll gladly take it back. If the police have been involved in any capacity, update them as well. This way if it ends up coming back to you, you can state (should you need to) that not only did she give it to you, when she wanted it back, you made a good faith effort to return it, including [all the ways you tried to get it back to her].
B)Offer to buy it from her. Offer her some token amount ($50?) and see if she’ll go for it. If she will, in a perfect world you’d have her scribble something down on paper and sign it, but in any case, write a check with something in the memo line so it’s clear what the money is for. As soon as the check clears, show it to Animal Control and/or the police.
IOW, either pay her so it’s officially/legally yours or turn it over to the authorities and make it not your problem anymore.
In any case, I’m willing to bet she doesn’t care if she has it or not, she’s probably one of those people that always has to complain about something. Just stay away from the crazy, no good can come from it.
Seems like she gave you the bird.
I’m glad and I hope it works out Paulie gets good care. if that means staying with you, I’m all for it. I also hate to see you get into trouble over this but poor Paulie.
lots of birds have dumb names: a huge percentage of parrotlets are named Kiwi. it was a good name the first million times…
She finally returned for Paulie with yet another friend in tow. Let’s hope he’s going to other friend’s home. At least Ray the monk parakeet from Wilson Parrot Foundation should feel better without the competition.
ETA: I’m not entirely here. Was at the dentist a couple hours ago and she discovered my first brand new cavity in about 40 years. Only got a temporary filling.
Kinda like iguanas named Iggy.