6:43pm Tuesday 10th February 2009
By Alex Hayes
A TOTTERIDGE woman is desperate to be reunited with her parrot after it escaped from her home more than a week ago.
Willow, a four-month-old African Grey, bolted out of a cat flap at her owner Mandy Sutcliffe's home in Everest Road at around 12.30pm on Thursday, January 29.
Now Mrs Sutcliffe is offering a £100 reward for the bird, which is described as Grey in colour with a red tail, and around the size of a pigeon, She said: “She was a really intelligent bird. They have the intelligence of a three or four year old.
“She was very tame because she is hand reared, so I think she may well have gone down to someone who may now be keeping her.”
Mrs Sutcliffe, who suffers with ME and has kept birds for several years, said Willow's disappearance had left her depressed.
“I had only had her for a month, but we had formed quite a bond already. She used to lie on her back and play with her toys, I had never had a bird who has done that before.
“I was in the front room and heard a big thud, so I went rushing in because I thought she had flown into a mirror.
“But I saw she had gone, and the door had been closed, so I think she must have flown out of the cat flap” she said.
Willow had only been returned to Mrs Sutcliffe the day before, after escaping whilst she took her poodle puppies out to the garden.
She added: “I got her back on the Wednesday after she went missing on the Saturday.
“She was actually found in a bush in the garden of a house in Dean Gardens Rise, on the other side of The Rye.
“She has a tag on her leg which has when she was born and the initials of her breeder, so anyone who finds her can hand her into the RSPCA and they can track me down that way.”
Anyone who has seen or found Willow can contact Mrs Sutcliffe on 01494 522 432.
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