SALISBURY — Rosie, an 11-year-old cockatiel with personality to spare, went on a little adventure last week.
The grey and white bird with the yellow crest and orange spot on her cheek, typically spends a part of her day outside her cage in the summer home of Carla and David LaFountain at Kampersville in Salisbury. Last Sunday, July 26, David LaFountain opened the door to go outside and Rosie quite unexpectedly followed her owner outdoors and took off into the wild blue yonder.
“She never does that,” Carla LaFountain recounted. “She went straight up into the sky and over the trees.
“I just never though I’d see her again.”
The LaFountains were heartbroken; they’d cared for Rosie for more than a decade.
“She’s such a character,” Carla said. “She loves talking on the phone.”
Although family members and friends searched long and hard, they found no sign of Rosie.
Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. This past Thursday morning, a couple hiking on the Abbey Pond trail in Middlebury — more than nine miles from Kampersville — spotted the runaway bird, lost and hungry, walking on the trail.
“She went right up to the hikers and let them pick her up,” Carla said.
The couple took poor Rosie to Homeward Bound, the Addison County Humane Society, which the LaFountains had notified when the cockatiel first disappeared. Homeward Bound contacted the LaFountains and a happy reunion was made.
Rosie’s grateful family fed her a lavish breakfast of Cheerios, peanuts, sunflower seeds, potato chips, toast and peanut butter, followed by Rosie’s favorite food — spaghetti.
Carla said she wanted to thank the hikers who took Rosie to Homeward Bound, but couldn’t get their names. She hoped they knew how much she appreciated their efforts.
Do the LaFountains expect Rosie to fly away again?
“I doubt it,” Carla said. “We won’t give her a chance.”
Editor’s note: Thanks to Louise Salant for tipping us off to this story.