CORNELIUS, Ore. (KOIN) — When Robert Detrick went through a Forest Grove Taco Bell recently, he only wanted some food. Instead, he got a parakeet.
“He’s either a hitch hiker or a lost child looking for a way home,” Detrick told KOIN 6 News. “He’s very friendly, he sings, and he definitely knows how to hitch a ride.”
“I was going for lunch, and decided I would go through Taco Bell and go through the drive-thru.” he said. “I’m sitting in the drive-thru and a bird lands up here on the roof of my van and it’s a parakeet.
“I kind of called it and climbed down my arm and onto my shoulder. … He crawled on my hand down to my arm and just stayed there,” Detrick said.
And he stayed there all the way home to Cornelius.
“I get out of the van, Bird’s still on my shoulder and walked right in the house, didn’t fly away, got some water, he drank,” he said. “I thought bet you he’s hungry and I went out to the bird feeder and got some bird food and put it down, and he sat there while I had my lunch, drank water and ate bird food.”
He bought Bird a cage, some seed, a mirror and a swing. Bird has all the comforts of home, though Detrick is still looking for the rightful owner.
But if he can’t find the owner, Bird has already made friends.
Detrick said he owned a parakeet when he was little.
“God may have said, ‘You need a parakeet,'” he said. “I think the bird wanted me to take him home, or help him find a home.”
If someone knows where Bird actually belongs, Detrick can be contacted at the Service Department at Doherty Ford in Forest Grove.
