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This message is being forwarded to Tweeters (by Dan Victor) because the
original sender is *not* subscribed. Please copy this email address
with any responses : mailto:FREDERICKLEATHERMAN at msn.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 13:06:59 -0800
From: Frederick Leatherman <FREDERICKLEATHERMAN at msn.com>
To: dcv at scn.org
Subject: Posting an email message on tweeters email list serve

I would like to post an email message on the tweeters list-serve regarding
my companion African Grey that flew away on Sunday morning, February 22nd.
She means more to me than I could possibly describe and I am falling apart
from exhaustion, worrying about her, and depression as I approach the end
of her second week away from me. I'm splitting my time between searching
for Pepper (my bird's name) and caring for my wife. She fell thirty feet
out of a tree that Sunday morning trying to help me rescue Pepper from
some aggressive crows. She has a broken back and two broken legs.
Fortunately, the injury to her back did not cause paralysis, but she is in
a lot of pain. I have attached a copy of the flier that I've been
stapling to trees in Eastlake and North Capitol Hill describing Pepper and
providing my contact information. I am in desperate need of help but
didn't want to commit a trespass violation on the list.

Christina Gallegos, a naturalist employed by the Seattle Parks Department
(Seward Park) told me about the list. I can't imagine a better equipped or
knowledgeable group of people to help me find Pepper. Right now, I'm the
only person looking. More eyes, particularly eyes belonging to people who
know where and how to find birds, might make the difference between life
and death for her. They are probably the only chance I have to find her.

I'm providing a more complete story, which follows, so that you can
understand where I'm coming from. I sent it out to veterinarians and
animal hospitals earlier today.

My wife and I lost our "child," a 2-1/2 year-old African Grey female named
Pepper in the Eastlake area of Seattle late Saturday afternoon, February
21st. I've stapled hundreds of flyers in Eastlake and North Capitol Hill
and registered her with the Seattle Audubon Society, PAWS, animal control,
and the Woodland Park Zoo. I've also placed ads in the The Seattle Weekly
and The Stranger that will run for the next four weeks beginning this
week. I will place an ad in the weekend classifieds for the Times and PI
and I'm also going to place an ad in the Little Nickel. Please let me know
if anyone has called your clinic to report finding or seeing a bird that
might be ours. We adore her and we're devastated by her loss. Our address,
telephone number, and e-mail address appear below and I have attached a
copy of the flyer that I have been stapling to telephone poles. We would
greatly appreciate it if you or your staff would post one of the flyers in
your clinic for clients to see. If you have any ideas, theories, or
recommendations, please let me know. I include the following information
that explains why this loss is particularly unbearable to us.

Pepper is extremely intelligent and beginning to talk in sentences with
appropriate word usage. She and I have bonded and she spends most of her
time sitting on my shoulder when I am at home, which is most of the time
since I work out of my home. We talk and laugh. We play a game that she is
particularly good at: I'll make up a song laying down the beat
occasionally stopping and she will immediately pick it up without missing
a beat nailing each note perfectly.

I had stepped out the front door of our house with Pepper on my shoulder
on Saturday afternoon and she slipped off as I leaned over to pick up a
cardboard box not realizing that she was snoozing. She spread her wings
instinctively to cushion her fall and attempted a left turn to return to
me, something she has done before successfully inside the house. However,
she didn't turn fast enough and found herself between our house and the
house next door with the ground falling away beneath her down toward the
lake. She quickly picked up speed although still only gliding. I chased
her and caught a brief glimpse of her as she disappeared between two
houses on the other side of the alley behind our house. My wife and I
searched for her for the rest of the afternoon and evening until about
midnight without success. However, I found her the next morning at dawn
just two blocks from our house. She was alone perched on a branch about
thirty feet up in a large maple tree located next to Lake Union in the
2000 block of Fairview Avenue East where the houseboats are located. My
wife climbed the tree up to the branch and we did everything that we could
think of to coax her down, but she continued to cling to the branch,
rather fearfully I suspect since her flight experience was limited to
occasional brief flights from one room to another in our house looking for
me, and of course, her glide the previous day.

Just as it appeared that she was going to try to reach me on the ground
below, seven crows appeared and settled on the branch flanking her on both
sides. She froze and did not react as the first crow took off and buzzed
by her head. She left the branch when the second crow buzzed her. As she
turned toward me, a third crow took off chasing her and I believe that she
panicked. Instead of coming to me, she took off northbound along the
street for about 150 feet her wings flapping furiously, then turned
sharply to the right and headed east up the hill in the direction of our
house with the crow in hot pursuit. I lost sight of them as they
disappeared behind a tall hedge and then I heard my wife scream as she
fell from the tree and tumbled down the bank toward the water. I found her
lying next to a houseboat pier screaming in pain. She'd broken her back
(L-1) and both of her ankles in the thirty-foot fall. Fortunately, there
is no paralysis, but she faces a long and difficult recovery that will
involve at least one surgery and her doctor is telling her that she will
not be able to walk for at least four months.

I've spent the past 11 days alternating between searching for our bird
without sighting her and visiting my wife at Harborview eating little and
sleeping only 2-3 hours each night because my dreams are nothing but
nightmares. I get up around 2 or 3 am and resume searching. We are crushed
and utterly devastated by what happened and as the days pass our hopes of
finding her are diminishing and we sink deeper into the darkest depression
that we have ever experienced. We cannot imagine life without Pepper.

Pepper is a 2-1/2 year-old female African Grey with grey feathers, white
around her eyes and breast, fully formed flight feathers, a bright
scarlet-red tail, and a black hook-bill. She is slightly smaller than a
full grown crow, an agile climber, and very shy. She perfectly mimics a
ringing telephone which is the first sound that she made when she was
about 9-months-old in order to get my attention (she figured that I would
pick her up if she rang the phone since I pick it up whenever it rings).
She also likes to fake me out and will laugh at me if I pick up the phone
by mistake. Yes, she laughs just like humans do. She eats unsalted nuts
and seeds but doesn't particularly like pellets. She also eats vegetables
and fruits and will descend from my shoulder to taste anything that I eat,
which I long ago stopped attempting to prevent. Parsely, avocado, and
chocolate are poisonous so they always should be avoided. She is a perfect
mimic and has learned most of the birdcalls in our neighborhood, even the
eagle's call (we have 3 of them in Eastlake). I never dreamed that she was
capable of flying the way that she did on the day that I last saw her.

I may have spotted her on Wednesday, February 25th sitting on the roof of
a yellow house on Capitol Hill at the intersection of Blaine and 10th
Avenue East just north of St. Mark's Cathedral. I'm not certain it was
Pepper because I was in the NOOA parking lot on the east side of Lake
Union, approximately a half mile away. Although I had powerful binoculars,
I could not see the bird clearly. However, it was approximately the right
size, was gray, and had a red tail. It was banging its beak against the
roof, a behavior Pepper learned to do when she spent some time at my
wife's parent's home while we were on vacation. They have two umbrella
cockatoos that do that all the time. The bird on the roof was gone when I
arrived at the house. I received a call two days ago from a woman who saw
one of my flyers. Although she did not see a bird, she heard a sound like
a motor coming from a tree at Summit and Belmont on Capitol Hill, which is
not far from where I saw the bird on the roof.

Your assistance will be gratefully appreciated,

Thank you,

Fred Leatherman

Name, Address, Telephone Numbers & Email:

Frederick Leatherman
2035 Yale Avenue East
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 324-3955
cell: (206) 954-3887
FREDERICKLEATHERMAN at msn.com