Birdsofafeather
When Marlena Kaesler lost her pet parrot Bobbin, a local online community came to her aid. She tells Steph Davidson how their help ‘saved me.’
When Marlena Kaesler went through a difficult time after a mental-health diagnosis, she found comfort in an unusual source: Bobbin, a bright blue quaker parrot with a lot of personality — and smarts.
Every day, Kaesler asked him, “Are you a good Bobbin?” He’d chirp happily in reply. Then, one day, she discovered him looking out the window beside his cage, asking each person as they walked by, “Are you a good Bobbin?”
Bobbin also kept Kaesler on her toes by playing tricks on her.
“He knew when he was being a trickster — he had a little robber walk like a cat burglar,” she says. “He would take a loonie or a lipstick or something if I wasn’t giving him my full attention.”
Then, in April 2019, the worst happened: after three years together, Bobbin escaped from Kaesler’s west-end apartment. Kaesler stayed out all night, going from yard to yard with a crew of friends who joined in the search: “I felt like I was in ‘Scooby-Doo,’ like ‘We need to find that bird,’ and ‘We need to borrow this ladder.’ ”
Kaesler turned to Palz Petz Zone, a local Facebook group with nearly 16,000 members. The community helped her cover the city in about 7,000 posters as well as tagging her on any lost bird posts that could be Bobbin. Some donated to her photocopying fund and three people even paid for her to speak to pet mediums.
Although Bobbin and Kaesler were never reunited, she has nothing but overwhelming gratitude for the hundreds of people who came together to help her find her friend.
“It may have just been a silly girl looking for her bird, but the truth of the matter is that it was someone with mental-health issues that was in crisis, and they saved me. That’s the only way that I look at it. I cherish every single comment that was made, every single person that gave me help, no matter what way, shape or form,” she says.
Two years later, people still alert her to every missing-bird post in the group, in the hopes she may one day hold Bobbin once more.
The online community is how she found her new feathered companion, lovebird Pip (who screeched for snuggles during this interview). Pip came into her life when a Scarborough woman’s two lovebirds unexpectedly hatched an egg, and Kaesler was able to rehome her.
Pip helped distract Kaesler when she was distraught over Bobbin.
It took time, but Kaesler says she and Pip are now best friends.
“Pip is a wild child, she’s spicy,” Kaesler says with a smile in her voice. “Pip will never replace Bobbin; she is very different, but getting to know her has been refreshing and exciting. She is a sweet little creature that keeps me on my toes.”