I stepped out the back door with the pumpkin pie in my hands, prepared to take it around to the garage fridge when Ramon flew onto my head.
He often does this. He wants to ride on our heads no matter where we go. I'd stepped out the back door many times prior with a budgie on my head. Usually I just step back inside and put him up on the light fixture and race back out the door. One time he even got all the way out the back patio with me and buzzed around the entire patio before alighting on my head for a trip back inside. He usually comes when I call him.
As I was saying, Ramon flew onto my head as I stepped out onto the back patio, carrying a pie on this blustery day. I stepped back in and set him on the light. We danced this dance about three times. The last time I raced him to the back door I thought I had made it out without him. But I was wrong. There he was on my head again. I reached my finger up to my hair when a swirl of wind pushed through, startling Ramon. He popped straight up above my head. This is when the gale tore through and seized Ramon like a riptide at sea while he was just above my head. I watched in horror as my little friend was spirited away like a kite up, up, up and over the garage toward the front of the house. I stood still a moment and called to him. But the wind was still beating my back and howling through drowning out my voice.
I dashed back in and shouted to the girls to run out front and look for Ramon. I ran around the side of the house and fetched Michael. We immediately started canvassing the neighborhood, calling for him. We searched trees and bushes, front yards and back yards. Neighbors came out and called for Ramon. We searched two blocks to the south (the direction the wind seemed to continue tearing). As we searched all day the wind ripped at us and drowned out our voices. Feathers, leaves, trash, other birds were all pushed about swirling in the air giving us false hope that maybe that was Ramon.
We cancelled our dinner plans and spent the rest of the day despondent.
That night the temperature dropped and the wind continued to pound outside. I had a hard time sleeping thinking about our little friend all alone and scared and cold in the night somewhere. And then I realized that he doesn't really understand he concept of predators. This is the bird who gets down on the floor with the bunnies and eats greens with them. Finally I drifted off to sleep and dreamed many dreams that he came home.
On Monday people continued to give us hope and advice but I wasn't so sure that I wasn't just holding on to wishful thinking. I put an alert out on Facebook. Michael posted an ad on Craigslist. Amira had already made up fliers and posted them all over the neighborhoods on Sunday. The winds died down a little bit on Monday and fires were springing up all over Northern California around us. Although we were depressed about missing Ramon, we still had a roof over our heads and the family was safe. So many others we know were evacuated and lost buildings and vehicles. We even had a couple of guest doggies here Monday while our friend, who had been evacuated, called insurance companies from a local coffee shopped and looked for lodging for her other animals and family.
Tuesday came. Ramon's cage had been outside for two days. We continued to look for him with a little less intensity and hope than the previous days. After dinner on Tuesday night I didn't feel like doing the dishes. I thought I'd just check my e-mail. I'd received a message from someone responding to Michael's Craigslist ad, "I think your bird found us," they wrote. I couldn't believe it. I called them immediately. I asked them where they lived. When they gave me their address (about 5 miles south of here as the bird flies - or blows) I wondered if they had found someone else's bird? They said he was blue with a white head and that he liked to land on people's heads and eat their hair. Well, that certainly sounded like him!
Amira and Rex and I jumped into the car with Ramon's cage and drove over there (much farther than 5 miles as the car travels). When we got there we were greeted by a young family (mom, dad, two little boys). They welcomed us into their home and showed us to a room with a small cat carrier containing a little budgie. IT WAS RAMON! They had put a dish of water and some wild bird see in there. Ramon immediately hopped up onto my hand and preened himself. I was over the moon.
I asked them how and when they found Ramon. Apparently when the dad came home from work today to check the mail, Ramon landed on his arm. They brought him in and made him a safe place. The youngest little boy said they were calling him Chirp - because he chirps!
What an adventure. Ramon spent two nights in the wild and had been blown across town. It seemed miraculous that we were reunited.
For as sad and gusty as it was Sunday, today we have a calm elation washing over us.
We have much gratitude for all the good advice, good friends, good neighbors who helped us look for our little Ramon. He's at home talking to us and eating tons of spray millet and playing with his toys. He does look a little tired. Hopefully we will all rest well tonight in a nice cozy house knowing that the whole family is home where they should be, including Ramon!
