Tweety´s Great Adventure

The seed cup was a welcome-home-present.

This is Tweety, our 3-year old cockatiel. She´s hand-reared, very tame and extremely social. She can sing two song: "If you´re happy and you know it (clap your hands)" and Josh Groban´s "You raise me up".
On Saturday morning she vanished without a trace. She had been eating rye toast with me in the kitchen and then, gone. Just like that.
It´s not the first time Tweety goes missing. By now, she´s quite well-known in the neighbourhood. But she had always let us know her where-about with a special come-get-me-call.
The silence was plain eerie. We checked with the neighbours. No one had seen or heard anything. We put up posters. No response. By Sunday night, we were trying to come to terms with the fact that might have ended her days as cat food.
On Monday morning, I went to the local vet without much hope. The receptionist told me that she knew exactly where our bird was; Tweety was with Samantha. She had flewn/hopped into her garden a few blocks away from us on Saturday.
The receptionist gave me Samantha´s cell number. I called and called, but her phone was off. For some inexplicable reason, I pictured Samantha as a theatre nurse and concluded that she couldn´t keep her phone on during working hours.
I called after five, after seven and then after ten. Nothing. I couldn´t sleep. Our daughter Tholi had a sore tummy and Paul was driving up and down our street, hoping for a miracle.
Early on Tuesday morning, I phoned the vet and told the receptionist that she must have given me the wrong number. She looked in her directory and found another number. It belonged to Samantha´s ex-husband´s new wife. I called, apologised and explained. The new wife kindly gave me the correct number to Samantha (one digit was wrong).
I called Samantha for I don´t know what time. She didn´t pick up. I sent a message and she finally called back. Finally! Only that she no longer had Tweety. She had worried that her cat might have a go at Tweety whilst she was at work. She had subsequently given Tweety to Sue at Free Me, an excellent Johannesburg based organisation that rescues and rehabilitates indigenous animals.
"You should try and get hold of her as quickly as possible as Sue is looking for a new home for Tweety", Samantha advised.
I hope I thanked her. I was panicking. I called Free Me but as it was still early, Sue wasn´t in. I waited 20 minutes before I called again. I was asked to hold. When I heard a voice, I assumed it was Sue. It wasn´t. It was a young woman named Shannon.
I didn´t have time to chit-chat. I told Shannon that I must speak to Sue this very second as she might be about to give our Tweety to someone else.
It turned out that it was Shannon who was the care-taker of Tweety. She kept her at her farm where her seven dogs were surprised to hear a bird sing Josh Groban´s hit song. Shannon promised to bring Tweety the following day. I was to fetch her after eight.
On Wednesday morning, I was at Free Me at the crack of dawn. I was sitting in the parking lot when Shannon arrived with Tweety.
Tweety looked a bit tired, but jumped onto my shoulder and bent her head forward so I could scratch her neck.
I´m seriously grateful to everyone involved in this rather complicated rescue operation.Tweety is home. Tweety likes her new seed cup. All is well.