The Prodigal Bird returns

Translated from my original Turkish post. I used Google translator then I fine tuned it in a haste. Hopefully, it makes sense as much as the original does.

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Pascal, whom I mentioned on my 30 December post, fled ten days afterwards.

Meliz was not home that morning. I took Pascal out to bathe in the side garden. It's what we do every day.

That day, as soon as I walked out the door, Pascal took off from my shoulder. I stared after him disappearing between the roofs and trees.

I asked DALL-E to draw me while Pascal was running away.

Lorikeet is a bird that needs freedom of movement. If caged, it will get depressed. So usually they are given a free run of the house; the wings are trimmed so they don’t fly up and away. Since Pascal got noticably sad after trims, our trimming intervals were getting longer and longer. It had been a year since the last wing cut, the day Pascal decided to run.

I followed Pascal through the side gardens. If we were living in US, someone would probably have shot me for trespassing. Some neighbours came out at askance and I said that the bird had escaped. No time to elaborate.

Father-in-law's house is nearby. We used to take Pascal there on Sundays to play with Hagi. Maybe, I said, Pascal has gone to Hagi. A possibility.

Pascal was not there. But in this way the whole family became aware of the situation. Brother-in-Law came, thankfully, he brought Hagi to our house. Hagi sings, Pascal hears it and comes back. I was walking around the streets with the sound of my phone playing Barış Manço on Spotify:

Ali yazar Veli bozar
Küp suyunu çeker azar azar
Üzülmüşüm neye yarar
Keskin sirke küpüne zarar.
                          Singer: Barış Manço
(Ali writes Veli strikes
Juice soaks to the pot walls
I get sad but what use it does
Sharp vinegar damages the jar)

Pascal could not resist this song and used to rush to us. With only faint hope, to each lorikeet perched on trees, I cried along with Barış Manço on the Spotify on the phone, 'Ali Yazar Veli Bozar...'. They listened and they flew away.

Meanwhile, Meliz arrived. I gave up my street singing and we went to the park where we used to take Pascal from time to time to let him eat native leaves and flowers. We saw a Pascal-like bird on a treetop. We shouted 'Pascal Pascal'. He didn't react, it flew away as I climbed the tree.

We left our phone number with each of our neighbors: in case a lorikeet wants to enter your house, call us. We reported Pascal as a Lost Bird to RSPCA¹, hoping if one finds him, may take him to them. We put out an award. We posted posters on bus stops, trees, picnic tables in parks.

Poster we taped on bus stops and poles. Last week I went around on my pushbike and took them all off.

A month passed like this. The whole neighborhood came to know. A couple of old women got Pascal's video and the YouTube links of the Barış Manço song from Meliz to play under the trees where birds congregated in the market; in case Pascal was amongst them, maybe he would hear.

My mother-in-law said, "Take Hagi, I don't want to look after it anymore." She probably took pity on us; or she was afraid her bird too would run away. We took Hagi home.

Hagi gradually got used to us and our house. We got used to it too.

Hagi eating apple in my lap

Two weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, my phone rang. ‘My friend brought me your poster. It is like the bird we found and we've been looking for its owner for the past month,' said a young man. The picture he sent looked like Pascal. They gave an address five kilometers away. We immediately jumped in the car with Meliz and drove off. As soon as we walked through their door, we knew it was Pascal. He recognized us too and hopped on Meliz's shoulder crying Where did you go? Where did you go?' We used to say this same phrase to him when he flied away to a place at home. He probably was expecting us to say the same again.

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After talking to the finders, I think I can now put the pieces together. Pascal ran away from home on January 9. I think he immediately regretted it and wanted to return but couldn't find the way back. There's an athletic facility near our house. He must have spent the night there on the grounds, and approached the training athletes the next morning crying 'Come come come' . Meaning, “just say 'come' to me and I'll come too, so you can take me home”. Lucky that he came across a compassionate and informed couple. The boy is on the Australian Olympic decathlon squad, and his girlfriend is also an athlete. They recognised, if ignored, he would be wasted and therefore were obliged to take him home. They nicknamed him 'Jimmy', they loved him. But at the same time, they were trying to find its owner. “We loved this bird so much”, they said to me, “we were always conscious of the fact how the original owner must be missing him”.

Pascal where he stayed for a month

Happy ending

Pascal and Hagi are with us now. We didn't cut off the wings. They fly around inside. They share with impunity what we eat:

Pascal and Hagi sharing my dessert

They keep me company while I work:

Haggi and Pascal on my desk

Unlike before, they are no longer let out to the garden. Pascal keeps chanting 'Garden, garden'. I say 'No garden', then I explain: 'Pascal bye bye. Baba sad, mummy sad. No garden' . He listens and whines “no garden?”.

We're now getting a big cage built in the side garden. Solid steel mesh enclosure covering a volume of 10m x 2m x 3m, which can be entered and exited from one room of the house and also having a separate lockable door outside. Until this is complete, no going out for either of them.

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Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

At college times, JSL by Richard Bach was a popular book. I think it was a forerunner of today’s highly illustrated emotionally charged books with scant prose. I remember a verse from that book:

If you love someone set them free. If they come back, they’re yours; if they don’t, they never were

In our age of social media memes, this comes as trite but it was original then. The statement sounds right on first read but there may be many circumstances under which it would be profoundly wrong. If you love someone, your first priority must be their well-being and happiness. Liberation may end up in unhappiness or even death for the one you love.

I had convinced myself that Pascal had immediately found a lorikeet friend and they were happily living together. Wrong. We now know that Pascal tried to return the day he escaped, but could not find his way home. Who knows what would have happened had he not met the young people I mentioned above. If I set Pascal free now, he'll probably fly away again. Because according to him there is no problem, we find him anyway. This time we would not even be able to deceive ourselves that 'Pascal is happy' because we know better.

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Prodigal

Finally, let me explain why I titled the article 'Prodigal Pascal'. This biblical adjective is more valid for a young person who runs away from home, but I adopted and adapted it because I said Pascal is very smart. Bird or human, if we do not appreciate the value of today, the relationships we are in now, it is easy to waste them all for supposedly brighter but elusive futures. Destroying our current wealth, our current relationships, waste and squander them, for possible future excitements. Isn't that the ultimate wastage? The prodigal son may not always be able to come back in a timely manner.

I made a Spotify list of Pascal's favorite songs. While I was working, he would sit on my shoulder and listen to this list.

After Pascal left, I couldn't listen to any of these songs. Now we listen together with Pascal and Hagi.

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1. Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals