| From: shan lung <shanlung9@y...> Date: Mon Apr 21, 2003 10:41 pm Subject: Tinkerbell Free Flight Report 3 of 3 I woke up early on Sunday morning. It was so beautiful with crystal clear sky. I could only wish that Saturday morning the day before had such clear sky. Looking at the empty cage, I knew there will be no way I can get another Grey or any other of that kind. I studied the maps of that area marking out what other likely areas that I may need to cover. I took note of schools and kindergardens that I will cover with the posters relying on the school catchment area will cover any parts that I may have missed out. I needed to rely on other eyes to help me. With all the posters, and the small town cohesiveness, I rely also that anyone who may want to keep Tinkerbell will be known by all in his community to be keeping what is not his. In my grassroots door to door, they got to know what she meant to me the same way you all know what she is to me. The burning sun did not deterred us from our ceaseless riding up and down the country roads calling for her. We went to schools and temples and other strategic places to put up posters. Over twenty color posters and 30 black and white posters went up with many fliers as well. People in those areas got to know me better than they know their local politician and they anxiously asked of our progress in the hunt. In the afternoon after an hour rest back at home, I decided on a new strategy. We will go back to that flight area with books and we will read there just in case Tink may be searching for us while we were off searching for her. I then got a call on my mobile phone. A kid rang up saying that he heard Tinkerbell had been found and captured during the morning. But the person who caught it love her very much and is likely to keep it. He refused to tell me where Tink was kept saying that it was not him A big weight went off my shoulder and the sun started to shine for me again. At least I knew then Tink is alive. Somehow, I was not too worried at getting her back. My calls to that phone got an adult who denied he knew of any bird. I went to that area to trace down the boy. Seeing a group of people who knew me from my earlier searches, I approached them with my problem. The leader looked at the phone number recorded in my hand phone and exclaimed he knows which house that came from. He paved the way and jumped on his bike to guide me to that house. That was an area missed out by me but near the heart of my main search focus. That family turned out to be rather nice people afraid of being embroiled in any touchy issues. With the information from them this time, that leader went on ahead of me to the house where Tink was kept. He came back to take me there. They again turned out to be very nice as well. Apparently, Tinkerbell was found by the younger brother up a nearby tree and he climbed up to get her down. The younger brother was away and coincidently, was taking part in the major temple festival that I had wanted to go to and will be back only in the evening. I was happy to follow the norms as I know Tinkerbell will be returned to me and went back again to see them late in the afternoon. I got away with more than just Tink. After an hour drinking with them, they forced me to leave with a bottle of their best home made plum wine and their special homemade wine soaked plums with Tinkerbell. On returning home, I had a good look at Tinkerbell. She seemed ok but she has a wound on the head between the eye and the nostril. If you can get back to http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/689829/ you can see that in a close up of her after she got home late Sunday night. That wound look like a peck mark. If you all recalled, Tink was looked after by my friend Duff when I went for a long holiday down under. Duff kept pigeons and Tink may have thought the pigeons that she tried to join are friends. She may have got pecked and Tink did abruptly veered away from them. She may have been so dazed and frightened that she just went off and away thereby making me age 2 years in those two days. I really do not know. If this report have caused you undue anguish, some apologies are offered. But I do want to make a very strong point that free flight is risky and must never be done nonchalantly. God knows! I went about it in a very careful and methodical way. And yet I nearly lost Tinkerbell. Whatever your careful plans, never forget Murphy is standing by your elbow at all times. I may have been worried if hawks or eagles were around. But pigeons? Then again, that may not be why she went away. Tink cannot tell me at this stage and I really do not know. This series of letters came to you in between work and home. We just got home after two hours going around on the bike and tearing down the wanted posters. We took a picture of one of those Tink color photos and I added it to the end of that Webshot folder. Tink will free fly again but that is not going to be soon. I will be doing a lot more training with Tink and that will involve clicker training of retrieve and other stuff. Where I perceived to be my faults and what I do about that will be detailed later in my next mail 'In retrospect', the same way I did after my semi freeflights. Again, I solicit the opinions of one and all to shine clearly on the cracks and flaws so that the idiot that is me can learn and not age more than is necessary. ===== With warmest regards Shanlung Joy - wife, Tinkerbell - CAG & surrogate daughter |
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