Cora Cockatiel - Part Two - Wally's Worried

Cora Cockatiel - Part Two - 

Wally's Worried

The sun beamed in from the east to warm and brighten Mr. and Mrs. Winkle’s bedroom. The breeze rode the sun through the open window, gently fluffing Mrs. Winkle’s soft 

grey curls. Mrs. Winkle woke slowly, rubbed her eyes awake and then, with a start, she sat bolt upright in bed and cried: “Mr. Winkle, Mr. Winkle! It's Cora! She wasn't there when we locked the cage!”  

Mrs. Winkle started to cry great tears that flowed down her sleep creased cheeks. She threw back the patchwork quilt, covering up Mr. Winkle’s head. In one grand motion, she sprang out of bed, pushed her bare feet into quilted green slippers and wrapped her warm fuzzy housecoat around her all at the same time.

Mr. Winkle was now wide awake. He struggled out from under the covers. “Now, now Mrs. Winkle. Slow down. We'll go and get the porridge on and check all throughout the big cage and in all the little cages and you'll see that everything is all right.”  

But just as he spoke, and, as he stood up at the edge of the bed, he saw Mrs. Winkle’s housecoat tail flapping behind her as she raced from their bedroom. Mr. Winkle, his nightcap askew on his head, straightened his nightgown, hopped into his old brown slippers and hurried after his distraught wife. Porridge with honey and cream was forgotten. 

Mr. Winkle caught up with her at the big bird cage as she fumbled with the lock. In her rush, she had startled all their cockatiels. Already awake and chattering, the cockatiels began squawking and screaming. “What's wrong?! What's wrong?!”

But one of the cockatiels knew what was wrong. Wally sat quiet on his usual perch and a tiny bird tear bubbled in the corner of his quick black eyes. He knew what was wrong. Wally had told Cora not to fly out of the cage. Many early mornings and late afternoons, she had clung to the sides of the large cage dreaming of flying high in sky. Cora had wanted to be outside for so very long that he finally squawked at her to go ahead and try to fly away while the door was open.   But she hadn't come back in time! Now he was sure she would never return. Mr. and Mrs.Winkle hadn't even noticed that she wasn't there! Not even when he had squawked at them as they locked the cage the night before. “Cora's gone! Cora's gone!”  

He thought Mrs. Winkle heard him because she stopped and spoke with Mr. Winkle, but Mr. Winkle had merely pointed to all his fingers, patted Mrs. Winkle's hand and they walked away.  

It had been cold during the night. Wally worried about Cora all night long. He called to her every now and then and thought he heard an answering call, but was not sure. There were night birds out there and the wind whistled.  Cora and Wally had never been separated before. 

“Look, Mr. Winkle.”  

“What is it, my dear Mrs. Winkle?”  

“It's Wally. He's sitting all by himself.” 

“Come to me, Wally."  Old Mrs. Winkle put out a gentle hand, her finger extended for a perch.  Wally flew down from his perch and landed lightly on old Mrs. Winkle's finger, bobbing his head and whistled softly “You know. You know.”

“Yes, Wally, I know. Cora's gone. What happened?”

“She flew. She flew.”  Wally whistled back and bobbed his head toward the large cage door.

Wally leaned his soft grey head to his friend, her tousled grey hair gently curling over his grey back. He nuzzled his soft orange cheek patches up against old Mrs. Winkle's soft pink cheek.  A tear rolled down Mrs. Winkle's cheek and onto Wally's head, down his sleek grey back.

“We'll try to find her, Wally.” Old Mr. Winkle said, gently petting both soft grey heads.

“Thank you. Thank you” whistled Wally. He flew back to sit on his favourite branch high in the cage and turned to face the much smaller inside cages. Wally was very sad. Mrs. Winkle was very sad. Mr. Winkle was very sad. They had never lost any one of their precious birds before. They were very afraid for Cora.

*****

"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see 

that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight."

~ Kahlil Gibran

From cockatiel.com (Cockatiel 101)

Points of Interest ~

Males have great vocal abilities and females are fairly quiet.

Females are more aggressive and they are more likely to hiss and bite.