Michelle
Hi everyone:
For those in the Bay Area, there is a local nonprofit, Mickaboo Companion Bird Rescue, that really needs some financial assistance. In case you are not familiar with them, this organization is all volunteer and is practically the only organization that does what it does in the Bay Area. It takes parrots and other birds that for one reason or another have been given up by their owners, places them in foster homes, provides good veterinary care for any that need it, and then seeks good homes AFTER the new prospective owners have been fully trained with regard to avian care. You can visit their website at www.mickaboo.org . They are the rehabbers of choice for the wild cherry-headed conures of San Francisco, made famous by Mark Bittner in the film “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill”.
Many species of birds are very difficult to keep, and sometimes their keepers run into bad situations (like foreclosures) where they simply cannot keep their companion birds any more. As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time to handle the demand and it is overwhelming this nonprofit.
Mickaboo desperately needs funding to pay for increasing veterinary bills - vet care needed to treat ill, injured and sometimes sadly abused parrots and other companion birds that have come into their care. You should know that one of the avian veterinarians that treats Mickaboo rescues is also the official veterinarian for the San Jose Peregrine falcons. We only want the very best.
Mickaboo has an opportunity to receive a Pepsi Refresh grant of $50,000 if they can land among the top 10 organizations ranked by number of votes received in a "contest" sponsored by Pepsi. The contest ends Monday Jan. 31. It is easy to register with the grant program, and once registered, you can vote everyday. Mickaboo currently ranks in 60th place. They need a LOT of votes by next Monday!
Please visit Mickaboo's website and use their link to get to the Pepsi Refresh grant program, please use this URL: www.mickaboo.org .If you'd like to go straight to the Pepsi Refresh contest, to the web page describing Mickaboo's proposal, please use this URL: http://www.refresheverything.com/mickaboobirdrescue .
This is a simple but highly effective way of helping a Bay Area all-volunteer non-profit with an outstanding record to continue making a difference, and it doesn't cost us a penny other than the minute or so it takes to log into the Pepsi Refresh grant program and vote.
I have had extensive contact over the years with Mickaboo volunteers, and have professional colleagues that have worked with them as well. They are a first-rate group. I’ve also adopted my last bird from them, a gorgeous Eclectus named “Ruby”. So I believe in them. Please help them any way you can, by voting, or by sending in a donation in any amount.
I realize this is not exactly in the center of the topics for this Forum, and would not otherwise trouble the List if it were not for my intimate knowledge of what Mickaboo has done, and that it is essential to the well-being of many kinds of birds that they have the funds to continue what they are doing. Please consider this as the List-owner’s privilege.
Thank you.
Evet Loewen
List-owner and moderator.