Bird saved by determined firemen
Hats off to the Calgary Firemen for not giving up!
Cat caught in a tree -- that's a rescue call the fire department receives from time to time.
But a bird stuck in a tree?
"Nope, we don't get a lot of calls like that one," said the Calgary Fire Department's Kevin Haines, acting battalion chief.
"But the boys did manage to get the bird down safely."
But it wasn't easy: this was one pet that didn't want to be rescued.
Suzy, the eight-year-old indoor cockatiel, began her outdoor adventures at noon on Tuesday when she escaped from the birdcage she shares with her cockatiel brother, Ray, in Falconridge.
The bird's owner, Richelle Nelson, said it was a comedy of errors.
"It was just after noon and my daughter brought the cat in on a leash, then the other daughter brought the dog in, but the dog chased the cat and the cat hit the birdcage and the bird flew out and went through the sliding door," said Nelson.
"Then it got crazier from there."
Suzy -- who recently injured her tail feathers and has trouble flying -- ended up several houses away, perched in a tree.
Nelson and her family would spend the next four hours trying every trick in the book to get the bird to come home.
"I tried calling her, I tried shaking the tree, I put the other bird outside in his cage to try to lure her back, we sprayed her with water. Nothing worked and I lost hope."
Exhausted and frustrated, Nelson gave up.
"But then I turned around and my three-year-old had tears welled up in her eyes," she said.
She called the city and was told to call the fire department, which she did.
"How embarrassing was that," said Nelson. "They had lights and sirens and I heard them come around the corner. All this to get a bird out of a tree."
But the firefighters met their match.
First, the ladder was too short to reach the feathered friend, who was sitting in a tree more than 13 metres above the ground.
Then, the firefighters tried to shoo it toward its home using water from the hoses. Standing on the fire truck didn't work either. Suzy just flitted from branch to branch for about 45 minutes.
Desperate, the fire department called in the aerial truck, equipped with a giant ladder used to douse flames on highrise buildings.
"They tried everything," said Nicole Bradley, who, amused, watched the entire ordeal play out across the street. "That little bird was bound and determined no one was going to catch her."
Eventually a squirt of water shot by a firefighter pushed the bird, she lost her balance and landed on the roof of a house.
A firefighter climbed a ladder to retrieve her, but she flitted away.
"But another firefighter was there and he caught her in mid-air," said Nelson, 24. "I grabbed her and put her in the house and then it was all over."
Haines said while the ordeal might have been embarrassing for the family, it's all in a day's work for firefighters.
"When people call us and there is no department in the city to respond, we are there for Calgarians, doing the best we can."
Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Re...#ixzz0nk6RXq5x
