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By
Pat & Jeff Levine
One day my wife came home to inform
me that the young lady who does her nails had tried
to rescue a cockatoo a few months back, and found
the bird to be so aggressive that she was afraid for
her young children. She asked if we could help.
Pat and I went to her house, assessed the
situation and decided to take the cockatoo home with
us to see if we could give him a better life.
We decided to call him Razzle Dazzle
because of his attitude; he's a male Umbrella
Cockatoo approximately four years old. After a vet
visit, we got him home and he was very friendly. Little did we know that as time went
by and he
got more comfortable in his new surroundings, he
would become more and more aggressive.
We
tried everything we could think of and it just got
worse. We were at the end of our rope. Finally, a
friend suggested we try Ken Globus, The
Bird Whisperer. We found out that Ken was going
to conduct a workshop in our area and immediately
signed up.
Because Razzle was such a “hard case” Ken decided to
work with him during his demonstrations at the
coinciding bird mart; this would give Ken extra
time. It
was a difficult session. Razzle screamed, fought,
bit and resisted with all he had. But by the end of
the second demonstration Ken had gotten through.
Razzle calmed down and started to trust. Ken got to
the point where he was able to hold Razzle and
nuzzle him.
The next day was the workshop. Ken had a great
group of people and an assortment of birds and
issues that promised to make it a very interesting
day. Ken worked with a couple of other birds
first. Then it was Razzle’s turn. Ken took Razzle
out of his cage and worked with him for awhile,
calming him even more. Then the moment of truth
came. Ken wanted to blend me into the process. I
was
going to handle Razzle. I was a little
nervous, as it had been a year since I had been able
to work with him without getting severely bitten.
Ken handed Razzle to me and gave me some handling
instructions. Within minutes Razzle and I
connected. We became friends. I was able to pet
him and hold him without getting bitten. I then
handed him to my wife. He was calm with her as well
and she was able to hold and pet him. My wife and I
were so happy, words couldn’t describe it. All I
could say was, “It’s a Miracle”. There wasn’t a dry
eye in the house
During all this, we realized how much we enjoyed
helping birds in need, so we started a bird rescue,
The Bailey Foundation. We took what we learned from
Ken and put it to good use helping other birds.
Once
Razzle got through his “wall of fear” he learned
that people were not going to harm him. We started
taking him with us to our outreach programs to meet
people and improve on his socialization skills. He
became very popular and enjoyed the attention. A
real ham.
After a few months, a friend of ours who likes
cockatoos, Burnetta Clarke, came over and went right
to Razzle. It was love at first sight. After a few
more visits, we could see that Burnetta and Razzle
were becoming attached. So, we decided that
Burnetta would be perfect to adopt Razzle through
our foundation. Razzle is now living a full and fun
life with Burnetta. Thanks to Ken’s training, this
marvelous bird is enjoying life for the first
time. Jeff Levine, The Bailey Foundation
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From
Ken
Here's a great
a follow up to this
story: in January
2005 I
did a program and
workshop in
Timonium, MD. The
man who relayed the
previous story, Jeff
Levine, attended
along with the woman
who
adopted Razzle,
Burnetta
Clarke. She and
Jeff wanted to show
me how well Razzle
was doing, so they
brought Razzle
along. At the
demonstration, in
front of a hundred
or so
people, Burnetta
took Razzle out of
his cage and set him
on the floor.
He hopped onto
center stage like an
old pro. Burnetta
called out, “Dance,
Razzle, dance.” And
he did, bobbing up
and down, laughing
and hopping around,
to the laughter and
applause of the
delighted crowd. It
was clear that
Razzle now loved
being around
people. It was hard
to believe it
was the same bird.
Razzle with
Burnetta Clarke
visiting World of
Pets Expo in
Timonium, MD
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