Jumbah

What do you do when you see an injured animal? Do you walk on by and let nature take its course? Do you stop no matter what? Does it depends on what the animal is?

I was walking into university the other day with my housemates when we noticed a bird flailing around on the ground. It was a rainbow lorikeet. We went over to see if it was okay. It was struggling to move and just sat there. One of my housemates said to leave the bird, but it was so cute and helpless. As we picked the bird up we were then approached by a man and his small son who said he had found the bird and put him up the tree, which he had fallen out of again. The poor little dude couldn’t fly and was limping on his left leg when he hopped around.

This is when it gets strange. He is the nicest,  friendliest bird you’ll meet. He loves scratches and being on your shoulder, and he never bites. He seems domesticated, but how did he get out there? Our first assumption was that he was dumped, but why would anyone do that? Our second assumption, and the most likely, is that he’s pretty dumb but in an endearing way. I don’t know how to explain it, but he just comes across as a bit dopey. We’ve been brainstorming a name for him and came up with Jabba, like Jabba the Hutt, because he was a fluffy, chunky little guy who stunk a bit, but that has kind of morphed into Jumbah. So we all call him Jumbah the mighty and powerful.

Alas, he needs a proper home. I think we’re all starting to get a bit attached to him. I’ve been scanning facebook and gumtree for any lost lorikeet posts but found nothing as of yet. I’m sure there are some good animal rescue centres, but I’m not sure if a lorikeet is their priority, or even if Jumbah will make it in the wild. He still can’t fly and, deep down, I believe he’s domesticated.

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