City woman holding out hope for missing parrot
Peitree went missing near Spring Park Road area
A Charlottetown woman is looking for anyone who has seen — or possibly heard — a small parrot on the loose recently.
Molly Nielsen said she has posted missing ads online, as well as contacted radio stations and the P.E.I. Humane Society about her pet, Peitree, after he disappeared a month and a half ago near Spring Park Road.
The conure parrot is about a year old with dark green feathers and an orange ID tag.
Peitree also has the distinguishing characteristic of being able to speak.
“He only knows one word, but he says it repeatedly. It’s his name, ‘Peitree’,” said Nielsen. “I wish I would have taught him his address instead looking back on it, but I never really thought I’d lose him. The reason why I got him is because they live so long.”
Conure parrots are small- to medium-sized, bright, colourful birds with a lifespan of up to 30 years.
Nielsen had hand-raised Peitree since picking him up from a New Brunswick aviary last February.
“He was my best friend, we did everything together,” said Nielsen. “He’d meet me at the door when I got home from work. It’s like a relationship you’d have with a very, very loyal dog.”
Nielsen said the bird wasn’t fully able to fly the day he went missing because his wings were recently clipped.
While she knows the parrot wouldn’t have survived the cold environment since November, she’s hoping someone may have taken him or seen him.
“He was very friendly, so if he was seen by somebody, he would have went with them,” said Nielsen. “Even if someone told me ‘I found my cat attacking this bird and I cleaned him up,’ at least I’d have some closure.”
Nielsen said she realized Peitree was missing when returning home from work one day.
While she would leave his cage open while at work, Nielsen said she was surprised to see her two large flemish rabbits also out of their cage.
“I still have no idea how they got out, so everything runs through your mind,” she said. “At the time, I thought the bunnies ate him, but that’s not possible. Maybe the bunnies scared him and he went out of the house somehow.”
Since then, Nielsen said she has “torn apart” her apartment, looking in every crevice and going through every scenario.
She’s now hoping that someone may have seen the bird since it went missing or will be able to provide an explanation of what happened.
“I’ve gone through every possibility in my head and none of them are good,” she said. “I regret that I never locked him in the cage because then I’d know where he’d be. I felt bad about locking him in, though. I loved him so much I wanted him to have some freedom.”