COLUMBIA — Timmy is 9 years old, 8 inches tall and loves coffee.
He’s also missing.
Scared by a dog, Timmy took off last week and hasn’t come back.
His disappearance has spurred Carter’s Creek Pike residents to scan the skies in hopes of finding the lost African Grey parrot before his owner, who is at Army boot camp, returns to find the bird missing.
‘‘I’m frantic,’’ said Talisa Bowers, mother of Pvt. Michael S. Bowers, 18, who is stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C. ‘‘The bird is his, and I’ve got to find him.’’
Bowers was showing Timmy to some neighborhood children outside of her home on Roy Sellers Road when her blue heeler dog scared the bird.
‘‘Off he went,’’ she said.
Bowers believes Timmy’s still in the area because neighbor R.C. Hutcherson spotted him two days ago when he went out to get his newspaper.
‘‘The bird was making a funny noise, but my husband couldn’t understand what he was saying,’’ said Hutcherson’s wife, Johnnie. ‘‘If people whistle to it, maybe it’ll come to them.’’
Bowers said Timmy is quite a talker, saying things like, ‘‘Timmy, he’s hungry’’ and ‘‘Timmy wants a cup of coffee.’’
‘‘The way he loves coffee, if he gets close enough to smell a cup, he’ll probably come down for it,’’ she said.
Timmy has a dark gray back and wings, light gray stomach, dark red tail feathers and a band around his leg, Bowers said.
Although she has alerted area law enforcement agencies as well as several veterinary offices, she believes her best bet lies with the public.
‘‘People are out looking,’’ she said. ‘‘They are good and kind and trying to help. That’s comforting.’’
Seen Timmy?
