MEET DEB
I had been completely fascinated by parrots my whole life but never had the opportunity to interact with them until 1999, when I discovered a bird store with parrots on display. For the next year, I was in there every few weeks - I had found my passion!
In 2001, I asked if they would mind if I just hung out there with the birds. That was the beginning…I spent countless hours and every weekend in that store observing and then slowly interacting with those birds. In September 2002, I bought a Greenwing macaw, before I knew how many birds there were in need of a home.
A year later, the store gave me a macaw, and less than six months after that, I was given a Military macaw through another contact I had met at the store. Then, by chance I met Julie Murad and she invited me to visit The Gabriel Foundation. I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of this organization. We adopted Rainbow, a Military macaw from TGF in October 2003 and by 2004 our flock had grown to ten!
In 2005, I married Bob, moved to Georgia, and he retired…kind of! Bob is my greatest supporter. He will be the first to tell you we bought this house for the birds! He has taken a completely unfinished lower level and created a fabulous bird room complete with full working kitchen, in-floor heat, separate air space, a walk-in shower room and an attached outdoor aviary all for the birds. When asked "do you like the birds?" his response is "Deb loves the birds and I love Deb." I know how lucky I am!
We live quite close to the University of Georgia veterinary school, which I thought would be perfect for the parrots. However, I found nothing else in the way of parrots here in North Georgia, so I set up my own booth and started taking a few birds to every event and festival I could find - in hopes of making contacts. It took about a year, but eventually I found enough people to start a club – and Squawk Talk was born!
Bob and I have taken in a few more birds (we are up to 24), but our main focus is on education and placement through No-"R"-Birds, a sanctuary we started that is licensed in the state of Georgia and pending non-profit status. To date we have placed seven birds in forever homes and have two available for placement.
Go back to Squawk Talk.
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