Ruffled Feathers Parrot Sanctuary Inc.
Where Hope Takes Flight
Why We Sometimes Break Our Own Rules: The Story of Lady J
Sometimes the universe has other plans. And when you’ve been doing bird rescue long enough, you learn to recognize when those plans are better than yours. This is a cockatoo rescue story that reminded us why we do what we do.
Here at Ruffled Feathers, we have a rule. A good rule. A sensible rule that has served us well over the years. That rule is simple: we don’t do adoptions in December or January. Period. Full stop. And that’s the end of the discussion.
The reasons are practical. Christmas brings out all kinds of well-meaning but impulsive gift-givers who think a parrot would make a perfect surprise present. Spoiler alert: it won’t. These are 30, 40, sometimes 80-year commitments we’re talking about here, not something you wrap in a bow because little Timmy liked the talking bird at the pet store. Add in the brutal Kentucky cold making transport risky, plus the fact that baby wildlife season is lurking just around the corner ready to consume every waking moment of our lives, and taking a break just makes sense. We need that reset. Trust me.
But this story? This story is about why rules sometimes need to be broken. And I’m not telling it to make anyone look bad or feel guilty about anything. Life happens to all of us. Every single one of us is just one bad diagnosis, one accident, one twist of fate away from needing help ourselves. That’s not pessimism talking. That’s just the truth that rescue work teaches you real quick.
Everything happens for a reason. Because of what happened in the past, the future changed for the better for many. That includes one very special umbrella cockatoo named Lady J
Where It All Started: An Umbrella Cockatoo Rescue Begins
To understand this story, we need to go back a few years. We got a call about three macaws who needed a place to land because their owner had passed away. The birds were left in the care of a family member who (and I say this with absolutely no judgment) never wanted them in the first place.
These weren’t small birds tucked in a corner somewhere. We’re talking one massive green-wing macaw and two blue and gold macaws, all living in an attic. An attic. If you’ve never had the pleasure of disassembling large macaw cages and maneuvering them piece by piece down a set of attic stairs, well, consider yourself blessed. My back still files complaints about that particular adventure.
When Help Is Needed, You Make Room
Here’s the thing though. When their owner was alive, he was up there living right alongside them. They had company, interaction, a reason to chatter and show off and be the magnificent, ridiculous creatures that macaws are. But alone up there? With barely enough light and zero entertainment? They were surviving, but they sure weren’t thriving.
We didn’t have room for them at the time. Not even close. But they needed help, and in rescue, “we don’t have room” often translates to “guess we’re figuring something out.” So we started a brand new bird house, a space we’d use for adoptions, quarantine, visits, and anything else that kept strangers from traipsing through our actual home at all hours. Sometimes necessity really is the mother of invention. Or in our case, the mother of “well, I guess we’re giving up a rental house.”
Those three macaws found their happy endings. But their story planted a seed that would grow into something none of us could have predicted. At the time, none of us realized this umbrella cockatoo rescue story was already quietly taking shape.
The Phone Call That Set This Cockatoo Rescue Story in Motion
This umbrella cockatoo rescue story began with a phone call no one was prepared for. It’s a woman I’d never met, but she knew me. She was the ex-wife of the gentleman who had passed away, the one whose macaws we’d rescued from that attic. She’d heard about what we’d done for his birds, and now she needed help with her own.
Thirty Years With One Bird
Her name was on the line, but the real star of the conversation was an umbrella cockatoo she’d raised from a baby nearly thirty years ago. Thirty years. That bird had been with her through marriages and divorces, moves and milestones, an entire lifetime of moments both ordinary and extraordinary.
But now she was facing long-term rehab, and the people who’d be in her home during her absence? They didn’t want the responsibility. And honestly? She’d started to realize the bird needed more than her current situation could provide anyway.
Here’s where I remind you of something important: people get sick. In reality, life happens to all of us. In rescue, we never blame or shame anyone for ending up in these situations. Not ever. Because any one of us could be next. The person calling for help today could be you or me tomorrow. That’s not dramatic. That’s just life being life.
Distance, Timing, and Hard Choices
Of course we agreed to help. That’s what we do.
Only problem? They were in coastal Georgia. Southern Georgia, right on the coast. And we? We’re in Louisville, Kentucky. That’s not exactly a quick drive down the road for a cup of sugar.
Because of that, we don’t typically travel that far for parrot rescues. Gas isn’t free, time isn’t unlimited, and we’ve got a small army of animals depending on us to be present and functioning. But these birds were connected. Same original home, same family history, same flock in spirit if not in current geography. We treat those situations differently when we can. When there’s a chance to honor those connections, to keep that thread of history intact somehow, we try to make it work.
So Georgia it was.
No Coincidences in Bird Rescue
Right around this same time (and I swear I’m not making this up) I get another call. A vet assistant friend of mine knew someone who was looking for a cockatoo. Specifically, they wanted a bird that needed some extra help and someone willing to put in the time and work to rehabilitate it. I filed that information away in my mental cabinet marked “interesting timing.” This umbrella cockatoo rescue story is one of those moments.
Because here’s what I’ve learned after years of doing this: Ultimately, there are no coincidences in bird rescue. Things fall into place with an almost eerie precision sometimes, like pieces of a puzzle you didn’t even know you were assembling. You just have to pay attention and trust the process.
When the Right Person Appears
Then I found out more details about this potential adopter. She was fifteen years old.
Now, before you gasp and clutch your pearls, let me tell you something. We have a seventeen-year-old girl who’s in charge of all the birds at one of our houses every single day, and she does a fantastic job. At the same time, age is just a number. What matters is the person, their passion, and their determination. I’ve seen plenty of adults who couldn’t handle a parakeet and teenagers who could run circles around professional aviculturists.
But still. A fifteen-year-old. Wanting a lifetime committment cockatoo. During our adoption blackout period. Around Christmas.
The universe was testing me, apparently.
The Road to Lady J
This young lady? She was patient. She waited and waited for me to find time to make that Georgia trip, never pushing, never demanding, just… ready. That kind of patience in a teenager is something special. Most kids her age can’t wait fifteen minutes for their phone to charge.
A Trip Guided by Gut Feelings
When I finally made the trip, I grabbed the truck at the last minute instead of the car. Just a gut feeling. Thank goodness for gut feelings, because the road leading to where Lady J was living turned out to be sand and muck that would have swallowed my car whole without a second thought. Even my truck struggled, wheels spinning, my head bouncing off the roof, and the engine complaining the whole way.
Misty Chicken came along for the adventure because apparently my life isn’t complete without a chicken as a co-pilot on rescue missions. Don’t ask.
Over the course of that weekend, we got Lady J loaded up and made the long haul back to Kentucky.,
The Hard Truth: Cockatoo Rescue and Rehabilitation
The vet appointment told us what I’d suspected but hoped wasn’t true. The reality of this umbrella cockatoo rescue story became clear the moment the exam began. Lady J was alive. But barely. She was near starvation, her body condition score (that’s the assessment we use based on the keel bone to determine how depleted a bird is) showing her at the very end of the scale. Not thin. Not underweight. Starving. Avian Veterinary Care.
What Starvation Looks Like in a Cockatoo
How did she get that way? There are usually many reasons, and none of them need to be hashed out here. What mattered was the present, and in the present, this bird needed serious intervention.
We started her on nutritious food that she gobbled up like she’d forgotten eating could be enjoyable. We put her on a hand-feeding schedule with baby parrot formula to help pack on weight. Luckily, like many birds, she remembered those early days of being hand-raised and welcomed the syringe feeding like an old friend.
Here’s where that young lady comes back into the story. She was there at that vet appointment, meeting Lady J for the first time. And let me tell you, I asked her questions. Lots of questions. I probably went on and on about birds far longer than any reasonable person would tolerate, partly because I genuinely love talking about them and partly because I wanted to test her. What did she know? What had she learned? Was she prepared for what she was asking to take on?
I walked away impressed. She’d done her homework. She had the knowledge, but more importantly, she had the passion. You can teach information. You can’t teach the fire that makes someone willing to wake up at odd hours, clean up messes, work through frustration, and keep showing up when the bird bites instead of cuddles.
The Decision: Choosing the Right Umbrella Cockatoo Adoption
Over the following weeks, we had visits at the bird house. Her parents came, her family came, everyone got to see her interact with Lady J. The support system was solid. The determination was obvious. It was time i had a choice to make.
One Bird or Many
At the same time, I could keep Lady J myself. Add her to my plate, where she’d be well cared for alongside all the others until her quaratine time was up. Safe, fed, loved, but one of many. A one-in-two-hundred situation where each bird requiring specific care inevitably takes something away from the others.
Or I could send her to a one-on-one home. A place where someone had nothing but time and energy to devote to just her. To her healing. Her recovery. Her emotional rehabilitation.
After syringe-feeding training sessions with the young lady, after watching Lady J respond to her, after a lot of quiet thinking during whatever downtime I could scrape together, I made my decision.
A couple weeks before Christmas, against all our normal rules and protocols, Lady J went to her new home.
The Magic: A Parrot Rescue Story Comes Full Circle
I don’t regret it. Not one single bit.
The pictures speak for themselves.
That young lady and her dedication to a life that came to us at its greatest moment of need? It’s beautiful. Because of her patience, her preparation, her willingness to learn and try and show up, Lady J has a brand new chance. A fresh start with someone completely devoted to her healing and her future. If this umbrella cockatoo rescue story proves anything, it’s that rules exist to serve lives-not the other way around.
When Trust Pays Off
We here at Ruffled Feathers want to thank this young lady from the bottom of our hearts. Thank her for caring. For working. For learning. For trying. And maybe most importantly, for simply showing up when she did, at exactly the right time to meet exactly the right bird.
Even then, they don’t always go down this smoothly. Those rescues don’t always have such good outcomes. But when things fall into place in bird rescue, when events seem completely out of your hands and guided by something larger, just let go. Trust it. Follow where it leads.
That’s because birds are little feathered angels on this earth. And when it comes to their lives, things are often set in motion that we have no control over.
In the end, you just have to go along for the ride and watch the magic unfold. That’s the quiet lesson at the heart of this umbrella cockatoo rescue story.
Brad & The Ruffled Feathers Crew
A special thank you to volunteers Kacey, Adriana, Emma Joe, and my wife Tara without each of you this rescue could never have happened.
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