Meeting the Public with the Parrots

 This past weekend Parrots as Pets Rescue hosted a booth at the Gainesville Downtown Arts Festival. There were huge crowds of people, great art and some pretty good food (or at least that is what the birds told us as as they were sampling everything!). We were set up near some other animal rescue groups and had a lot of shade...thank goodness! There were quite a few learning opportunities for me as well as our guests who stopped by. It is always important to get a feel for what the general public knows about parrots and to see again the wonder and fascination people instinctively have for these beautiful creatures. I took Madison Macaw down, Henry came with Dusty the Umbrella Cockatoo (who does fun tricks!) and Harley (Harlequin Macaw) came in with Jeff from Orlando. Kovak the Grey, Tilly Shamrock Macaw and Rubix the baby Quatro Macaw came to visit with Casey! I think the most common comment of the weekend was, "oh my God, how beautiful!". The second most common was usually something like, "I knew someone with a parrot once, they had to get rid of it." While the comment usually  makes me sad, this weekend it gave us great openings to talk about parrot care, the time and effort involved in owning one and why it isn't the pet for everyone. People who had never touched a bird got to touch and see them up close. We gave out lots of literature about bird care and about the rescue. We have already had an application come in. We met a young man (around 11) who owns three parrots and provides all their care. His mother vouched for him; he wants to be an ornithologist. He asked great questions and got information about being a foster parront. I was so impressed by him!

We raised some money with a raffle and were surprised by people who gave us donations and didn't even want a raffle ticket - they just wanted to help! We have a few prizes left over and I will be running an online auction at the end of October to finish our fall fundraising efforts! We have a waiting list of birds who need to come into the rescue so please think about fostering a bird!! We will have extra posts this week, including an update about Smokey the wonder budgie!! He is doing great! Time to go make the oatmeal and fruit and veggies and.......!