The door opened for a
split second, and before Kimberly Anchell knew it, her bird was gone.
Anchell, 47, who lives in Rock Creek, thought for a month that her gray cockatiel, George, was dead.
Then last week, during her night shift as a physician's assistant in the emergency room of Vancouver's PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, one of her last patients was a man with a severe finger wound.
A temperamental cockatoo had completely ripped a fingernail off Christopher Driggins, 52, founder and president of Northwest Bird Rescue and Adoption Orphanage.
During their chitchat, Anchell shared her missing bird story.
Driggins knew exactly where George was.
"It was too amazing to be possible," Anchell said.
That very morning, a Northwest Bird Rescue volunteer had picked up a parakeet found in Rock Creek. The volunteer overheard that two houses down, a neighbor had found a cockatiel but never bothered to report the discovery.
The volunteer sent the message to Driggins, who filed it away in his memory.
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