My new contact information - and goodbye

My Avian Adventures blog is coming to an end...it was short, but fun! Midwest Homes for Pets has officially taken over anything and everything about Avian Adventures, including my e-mail address (carol@avianadventures.com). AA will be in good hands and I know lots of exciting things will be happening in 2008.

My e-mail address is carol@carolfrank.com. I will be moving my blog eventually to that location within the next month or so. My new blog will focus mostly on the pet industry with a concentration on the bird segment. The bird segment is floundering for a multiple of reasons - but I think the primary one is lack of good education and resources for bird owners. But that is another entire subject.

Adios.

The Murphy Group - an exciting new venture!

I just love the pet industry! So now that I am no longer president of Avian Adventures, I am excited to launch my newest venture The Murphy Group: customized pet industry consulting. Named after my beloved male Eclectus, The Murphy Group will offer a wide array of services geared toward the pet industry with a concentration on the bird segment. Click here to view a .pdf with more details.

My largest client is the company that purchased Avian Adventures, Midwest Homes for Pets. I will be helping them develop new products for them to market under the Avian Adventure label so look for some awesome new product introductions in 2008!

Murphy and I will also continue our roles as Avian Advocates promoting intelligent, educated, responsible bird ownership. More about that in my next blog.

Some comforting and wise words

Dr. Irene Pepperberg, Alex's mom, sent this to me after she heard about my loss...it was sent to her by a friend who had recently lost her companion parrot -

I understand. There were times that I just couldn't function. I felt that people cared, but they really didn't feel the depth of my pain. After awhile, I felt like people didn't want to hear about how I was hurting anymore. They had gone on with their lives and mine had stopped in time. I couldn't get past the hole in my heart. A part of me died with Ziggy. She was my heart.

I went thought the stages of shock, disbelief, sad, depressed, angry, mad, withdraw.al....
No one will ever replace Ziggy. I just finally realized that almost 7 months later, as of 10/8, my heart will honor Ziggy by helping two parrots that need a good home.

That one part of my heart will never heal. That part of my heart died with her, but she will help me to go on.

A part of your heart belongs to Alex and always will. That is a very special thing to have. Alex is with you everyday. You will feel his beak on your face., or a gentle breeze....that will be Alex flying near you to comfort you. Then one day, he will help you to find your way to go on.

Someone told me that the intense pain is not only the hurt you are feeling, it is the hurt that Alex is feeling of separating from you. Your bond was so close that he is longing for you also. When your pain begins to ease, it is actually Alex becoming content over the Rainbow. This will then bring you peace.
He will come and go, as he will be there to check on you during your times of struggle, for he will know when you are in need of his strength.

I hope this helps. You are not alone. I care and Alex is with you. He is now your guardian angel.

More Sad News....this time more personal

I am deeply saddened by the loss of my beloved black-headed caique, Chuck. I hope most of you who read this haven't experienced this kind of loss...because it REALLY hurts. I was out of town when it happened and Sunday night I got a call I have dreaded for the 17+ years since I took Chuck out of the nest when he was 3 weeks old. My neighbor came in to check on him and found him. The necropsy revealed absolutely nothing wrong with this healthy, happy, loving creature and we came to the conclusion that he probably choked. This bird had more personality than many people I know. He was so full of life! He just wasn’t afraid of anything. One minute he was like a bad little two year old boy, always getting into trouble, the next minute he would be cuddling up under my neck and letting me rub his body for hours. I could not believe how loving the little guy was. A complete and total love sponge.

His companion, my eclectus Murphy Green, seems to be holding up very well. I feel like he probably knows what happened since his cage is right next to Chuck's. The interesting thing is that he hasn't uttered Chuck's name once this whole week....and before this, he would constantly call out "Chuck!" and scold him when he did something wrong. I do wonder what is going on inside his gorgeous green head. All I know is that he is getting LOTS of loving and seems to be enjoying every minute of it.

Chuck led an absolutely fantastic life and was as loved as any companion parrot could be. I will miss him soooooo much but am comforted knowing that Chuck and Alex are up in Birdie heaven wreaking havoc and kicking butt. God Bless them both.

A Tribute to Alex the African Grey

In what has truly rocked and shocked the parrot world, we lost our most magnificent ambassador on September 7th. The silver lining in this cloud is the INCREDIBLE amount of media coverage this beloved creature's passing has received. Irene Pepperburg is a dear friend of mine, and while talking to her last week her comment was "It's almost like Diana died. I have been blown away by the show of support and love that has come as a result of this tragedy. Donations to the Alex Foundation are up 1000%."

Avian Adventures has been a long time supporter of The Alex Foundation. We have donated many cages over the years and have made financial contributions as well. I was privileged to meet Alex several times and even shot a short video with him that resides on our website. (http://www.avianadventures.com/Alex/Alex%20the%20Parrot.htm) I can tell you, he was quite a character! The minute I would pick him up, Alex would say “Wanna go back! Wanna go back!” He just cracked me up.

He was such an incredible bird that the New York Times, LA Times, Boston Globe, CBS News, Good Morning American, and many, many more prestigious publications covered his death. Take a look at a few of the links we have found: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/science/10cnd-parrot.html?em&ex=1189569600&en=708c72b735b87acd&ei=5087%0A

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2167779,00.html (I especially loved this one)

http://www.livescience.com/history/070914_hn_parrot.html

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA091607.02H.maria.24750f9.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-alex12sep12,1,7051719.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=2&cset=true

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12wed4.html?_r=1&em&ex=1189742400&en=5c33aee830732d44&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

GMA Video: http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Alex&type=

Irene and Alex did more to promote interest in parrots than anyone I can think of. If you would like to read more about the contributions that Alex made to the studies of animal intelligence (or to give a donation in his name), visit: www.alexfoundation.org

In memory of Alex

AVIAN ADVENTURES ACQUIRED BY MIDWEST HOMES FOR PETS

We are very excited to announce that on Friday, August 31st, 2007 Avian Adventures was acquired by one of the pet industry’s oldest and most respected companies, Midwest Homes for Pets. Midwest and Avian are aligned in their goals to provide consumers with nothing but the highest quality cages and accessories for their beloved pets.

Avian Adventures will now be known as “Avian Adventures by Midwest.”

We are also pleased to tell you that our customer service guru, Sarah Klein (service@avianadventures.com), is taking a customer service job at Midwest’s corporate office in Muncie, Indiana so she can help answer any questions you may have about our wonderful cages.

In addition, I will be consulting with Midwest to help them develop new and exciting products for the pet bird market. I can't tell you how happy I am about that because over the years I have had to put several good ideas on the back burner because of limited time and resources. Partnering with a company the size of Midwest means more cool products for you and your beloved feathered darling.

Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions about this exciting news.

No, this will not be my last Blog. Next up - let's discuss new product ideas!

Craziness at Avian Adventures

Between the Poquito Craze and another extremely exciting announcement we will be making this weekend, we have been running around like a bunch of banchees around the office. So I am late with my blog....and I feel bad since both Bird Talk and Pet Product News have announced the formation of my blog in this month's publication.

And to contribute to the craziness, this past weekend I rode in one of the largest bike rally's in the country - the Hotter N' Hell 100 in Wichita Falls, Tx. Why anyone would want to ride 100 miles in the middle of nowhere in 100 degree heat is beyond me...oh, I guess not because I did! Actually, I only rode 50 miles. But it really was a blast.

So we have some BIG news to announce next week. All of us at Avian Adventures are extremely excited about this...and you will be too as soon as you read all about it.

As a caique lover, I couldn't help but want to share the heartwarming story of Little Stevie with you. Stevie was born without eyes, but because of the incredible love and devotion of a group of parrot lovers, Stevie is blossoming into a gorgeous, amazing bird. You won't want to miss this story.

My next blog will be Tuesday, September 4th and will include the Big Announcement!

By the way, the girls in the photo are part of my Dallas Divas running team. Fortunately for Murphy and Chuck, they are also bird lovers!