A PITIFUL PARAKEET survived a harrowing ride through drain pipes after its owner, thinking it had expired, flushed it down the toilet.
Pete was rescued when Mavis Collins heard its indignant squawking from the septic tank as she worked in her garden.
But as Mavis, 37, listened, she realized that the squawks came from the septic tank vent. She called a plumber, who came to the rescue.
"Pete was a real mess when he was finally fished out," Mavis recalls. "But most of all he was mad. He kept squawking as though he were scolding me. He kept it up all through the bath I had to give him."
Pete's less-than-wonderful adventure began that morning, when Mavis checked his cage and found him lying on the floor.
"I poked and prodded him, but he wouldn't move," Mavis says.
"He looked as dead as a doornail to me. I felt terrible because we'd had him for almost 14 years. He was a part of the family. I knew the kids would be devestated when they found out.
"If they thought he was still alive somewhere, I figured they'd be able to take his loss easier," she explains. [One wonders if she would try this trick with her husband or kids...]
Plumber Rex Carson says he doesn't understand how Pete survived the ride though the pipes into the septic tank.
I would have thought the waste in the tank would have finished him off," he says. After Mavis cleaned Pete up, she rushed him to the vet, who told her the bird seemed to be in good shape, except for loosing some feathers. He said he had no idea why Pete appeared to be dead when Mavis found him in his cage.
"Hewas [sic] surprised Pete survived," Mavis says.
Pathetic Pete now seems determined not to take another ride though the Collins' plumbing.
"The minute I step into the room, he just starts squawking at me," says Mavis.
"I'm sure he hasn't forgiven me for flushing him, but part of it is because he wants to make sure I know he's alive."