The case of the missing bird

It takes a lot to get a funny look from the natives around here. Certain pockets of the city appear to have passed through Alice's looking glass, only to bring back the most weirdly wonderful sights and people. This is a facet of living in Seattle I have not yet ceased to appreciate.

Even a situation where, for instance, a man stops you on the street downtown, keeps offering to give you all of his worldly possessions, and asks you repeatedly how to get to Montana on foot will raise few eyebrows. (This did not happen to me, but to someone I know.)

Here in my neighborhood, we've got kind of a situation: a lost tropical bird. As to be expected in the Northern hemisphere, it is getting cold here at night, and there is a one-legged cockatiel missing. There are Lost Bird flyers everywhere. I keep one eye out for this bird at the bus stop, though I've never reunited a lost pet, even an amputee pet, with its owner.

In light of the general bizarre wonderment endemic in Seattle, however, I wonder if it would register in my head that a cockatiel is out of place in an half-bare oak tree. Can one lose the ability to see things as out of place? Can there be too much environmental weirdness?

Here's to a happy bird homecoming.

(photo by W.S.)