Habib's Story, Part 2: A Lucky Friendship

I signed up for the bird forum and sent Vee a private message, explaining our goal of ethically adopting a bird as well as all the dead ends/frustrations we had faced, and simply asking if she had any wisdom to share.  I felt so blue and just hoped that maybe she just knew of a reputable bird store or seller or way to adopt.

And then I proceeded to check my email once an hour to see if she had responded. :)

Don't you hate that about what electronic communication has done to us?  We tend to hope for immediate response, even when we know that's crazy.

I heard back from Vee the next day, and while she empathized with my situation, she didn't have any magical answers to good bird sources in Doha.  In fact, she shared part of a rather amazing tale with me: her Congo African Grey, named Habib, had been rescued from a worker camp here in Doha.  They had been feeding him some of their rice, but his environment was poor.  Not knowing the workers, I don't know if they did the best they could or if they were mistreating him.  No use in hypothesizing, but one of us will someday write a difficult blog posting on some of the living conditions we see for hard-working laborers here...it is not easy to describe, understand, or consider.  The bottom line was that Vee had taken Habib into her own home as a wild, frightened creature. It had taken her eight months to touch him, but through three years of her patience and love, she had bonded with Habib, and he was her trusting friend...completely hand-tamed, talking, happy, and healthy.  With Vee's two children grown and out of the her nest, Habib (which means "my love" or "my sweetie") had become her baby.

Having known the difficulty of approaching Cosmo's cage and sharp beak, I thought this was incredible.  I was also under the initial impression that adult bird were unable to bond or go through significant rehabilitation/taming.

In fact, I was wrong about those initial impressions...those are common misperceptions, in fact.  Adult parrots can be "re-homed" into a new environment and with care, time, and patience, can become excellent family pets.  Before leaving Texas, I had consulted with the local breeder from whom we had bought El Jefe, and he also reassured me that "a good bird is a good bird, no matter what its age."

Thinking about Vee and her success with an adopted adult bird gave me some hope.  Maybe we didn't need to seek out a baby or very young juvenile to have a great pet.  Maybe we could rescue a bird, given the right situation. I pondered these possibilities and thought about talking to John...but worried because he and I had been very set on doing this the "right" way (including a very young/bondable bird, clear breeding papers, etc.).

Unfortunately for our possible friendship, Vee was scheduled to relocate to Saudi Arabia this September, so I knew that she would be very busy getting prepared to move.  In relation to that, I asked her about her experience with the CITES permit process (That's pronounced "sight-ees"...for more on the treaty to control import and export of threatened and endangered species, click here).  She said she was having a difficult time, but that she was hopeful over a special contact she had found.  Knowing the pain and frustration of trying to get permits for a pet bird, I had my fingers crossed for her.