Frootloop flew the coop. A year later, a Cochrane pet owner is hoping to find his Alexandrian parrot in Red Deer.
“I know it’s a long shot,” said Andre van Hoeve — but he figures that Alexandrian parrots are good fliers, and it would only have taken Frootloop an hour to fly here from Cochrane.
He and his wife, Evelyn, lost their pet after it was inadvertently startled by their daughter’s boyfriend and flew out an open screen door on July 28, 2017.
The parrot first flew up to their roof, then flew away. “We kept looking for it, but when the frost came, we kind of gave up,” Andre recalled.
The van Hoeves’ hopes of finding Frootloop were recently re-ignited by some information they received from a Red Deer pet store.
When van Hoeve and his wife were in Petland two weeks ago to purchase another Alexandrian parrot, they were told a local woman had come in last fall with a Alexandrian that needed its claws clipped.
The woman had told store staff that she didn’t intend to be a parrot owner, but the bird had flown in through her kitchen window.
The van Hoeves are really hoping this is their beloved Frootloop. “It kind of gnaws at you, what happened to it,” said Andre, who’s been running a classified ad in the Advocate’s Lost and Found section.
Although the van Hoeves have a home menagerie of seven birds, a hole remains in their hearts for the cute green Indian parrot with a warm personality and bright red beak. Frootloop, who would be about two years old now, was the same age as Bob, the couple’s African grey parrot.
Bob was Frootloop’s best buddy and was inconsolable after the bird disappeared,” Andre recalled. “He kept repeating, ‘Frootloop! Frootloop!’”
Ideally, the van Hoeves are hoping to get their Alexandrian parrot back and are offering a $1,000 reward. But Andre knows a new owner might want to keep the bird.
He would at least appreciate hearing that Frootloop is alive and well, to put his concerns to rest.
Anyone with information about the unbanded parrot is asked to call 1-403-333-1964, or email avhoeve@gmail.com.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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