Tinkerbell Legacy - Living and loving of a flying CAG in Taiwan

[shanlung]

Folks,

After coming into Cheng Rai Thailand, I was checking on the visitors to Tinkerbell webpage when I noticed a new URL that some visitors came from .

I am touched to find a thread started here by FairLight and that I am remembered by Outlaw, Stacy and Laura. Thank you for introducing me.

I thought I sign on here as well.

To those who have not know of Tinkerbell the flying CAG from Taiwan, I include 2 photos down below to give you an idea and the albums I extracted those photos from.



Tinkerbell - Reunion
http://community.webshots.com/album/193177124srfoNO/2



Tinkerbell at Green Island Taiwan
http://community.webshots.com/album/183120264DSTmOt


A love story of me and my Tinkerbell, a free flying Congo African Grey parrot CAG , as we roamed about the mountains and forests and cities of Taiwan. She loves to go riding with me on the motorbike as she sit on a perch on the handle bar.

Full details of that and more are in that webpage, together with URLs to the relevant Webshots folders of hundreds of photos. Without those photos, what I wrote will never be believed

That is the legacy that Tinkerbell will like you to have. That you can also keep a flying parrot.

The legacy is on-going, and that can be followed from the blog

http://www.livejournal.com/users/shanlung/2005/02/





ShanLung

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9

[LMPego]

ShanLung:
I'm so glad you found us here. I think about you and Tinkerbell all the time and hope you're both doing well. Are you in contact with her new caregiver? How is she doing?

[The Outlaw]

Shanlun:

Did you get her back? I followed your threads for a long time and enjoyed your pictures. It broke my heart when you had to leave her. What's the latest?

THE OUTLAW

[shanlung]

Hi Laura and Outlaw,

Thanks for your concern for Tinkerbell. Time heal somewhat that pain.

The last I heard from Tinkerbell caregiver is that she was well and he also send me photos of her that I placed in her webshot folder.

Perhaps it will be best if I paste that letter I wrote even though it was over a month ago. That continued into the blog that I set up.



Tinkerbell Legacy - Start
To all my friends across the world.

There are two main groups. The first group are those
that I was writing to when I was with Tinkerbell and
who knew me for years. The other group are my recent
friends including non-English speaking friends from
Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, and Chinese
from Taiwan and China. This email will be going to
both groups. For the sake of translation, I will try
to keep my sentences short.

To that first group, I must say sorry for having left
you in silence for such a long time. I have found it
too painful to write to you after my separation from
Tinkerbell.

I did write again to let you people know I was safe
during the tsunami on 12/26. I thank you all for
writing and I read all the letters even though I did
not answer at that time.

Let me make amends now and you may understand better
why I was silent.

My contract in Taiwan came to an end on 14 Oct 2004
and I had to leave Tinkerbell with my Taiwanese friend
and his family. I still hope to be back in Taiwan
again even as the plane brought me and my wife to
Singapore.

As to how much animals bond with humans, I have to
tell you of Ivan my cat. Ivan was a kitten in 1997
when he was rescued to live with us in Hong Kong. I
have mentioned in a group that Ivan appeared to be
psychic. You may like to read of that in
http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/ivan1.html

In those days, they did not have the scare of avian
flu or new diseases. When we had to return to
Singapore, it was easy enough to bring Ivan back with
us. Ivan did not join us when we went to Taiwan as we
did not wish to suhject him to a 3 month quarantine.
I do love Ivan very much.

Ivan was kept by my mother-in-law in a big enclosure
with other cats. In the brief sporadic visits back,
Ivan seemed to ignore me.

A few days after we got back to our apartment in
Singapore, Ivan was brought back to me by Joy's
mother. After 4 years of being apart from me, I
thought he may have forgotten me.

I first heard him screaming and calling from his
carrier cage as he was brought to the apartment. When
the cage door was opened, Ivan came out, look very
intensely at me and screamed and meowed even louder
for at least a minute.

Ivan then looked away from me to the nearby table and
was quiet. I thought that with all that strange
screaming, perhaps he remembered me after all. I was a
bit disappointed that he did not purr and do his
figure of 8 curling and rubbing on my ankles.

What he did next was something he never did before.
Ivan jumped up to the table next to me and leapt
immediately up from the table to my shoulder. He then
curled himself around my neck, and continued that
screaming right into my ear while rubbing and rubbing
his head on my cheek and ear. He remained on my
shoulder and refused to be taken off.


http://community.webshots.com/user/shimmertje in the
Halftail album

When I had to leave Tinkerbell, some of you wrote to
assure me she will remember me. After this
demonstration from Ivan, I do know for sure that none
of the animals that we are close to will ever forget
us. I was tremendously touched by Ivan.

As I do not feel Singapore to be a place I can call my
home even though I was born here. It claimed to be
democratic having regular elections. Elections are
also regularly hold in pre Saddam Iraq, North Korea
and Cuba. Many people here do not wish to ever retire
in Singapore. I share such sentiments. But now as
Singapore will not allow me to bring back Tinkerbell,
this place will never be my home.

In mid Nov, I was so delighted to receive a phone call
from Taipei to be prepared to return to Taiwan on a
new contract. I wanted nothing more in my life than
that. I was already thinking of chapter 2 with
Tinkerbell and how to write and let you all know. But
a week after that phone call, I was told the contract
price was arbitarily cut and that cut fell on my
department.

That was painful. For a couple of weeks after that, I
was in a daze.

Life have to go on.I thought of going for a scuba
diving holiday in Thailand and then on to Laos. (I am
a qualified PADI Rescue Diver).

A childhood friend was planning to go to Kuching,
Borneo and wanted me and Joy to join him there.

When I was in Taiwan, I have seen many small orang
hutans (this is a malay term translating directly to
man forest) kept in tiny cages in restaurants to
attract customers. I have wanted to see them in the
wilds. When in Taiwan, I also saw the Rhinocerous
Hornbills in a park with their wings clipped. Those
are big and beautiful birds that I also wanted to see.


With the strong persuasion from my good friend, I
changed my plans and was in Borneo instead. That was
where I wrote to you from to let you know I was safe.

Joy and I went to the Semenggoh center for orang
hutans rehabilitation.
http://www.cuti.com.my/Sub/Sarawak/guide_semenggoh.htm

This is an old center and all the orang hutans are
already released into the forest. However, they have
supplementary feedings at 9 am and 3 pm. If the orang
hutans cannot find sufficient food, they will turn up
for the supplementary feedings. We were told that
there may be a dozen or more.

In our first day at Semenggoh during the 3 pm feeding,
we saw a small orang hutan. She was high up in the
tree top slowly moving about. She did not come down.
I was happy even if I saw her at a distance. At least
this time it was in the wild. I seen too many of them
chained and caged and it felt majestic to see even one
orang hutan in the wild.

I sincerely hope that the other orang hutans
integrated themselves back into the wild. Semenggoh
center is surrounded by villages and plantations. Even
though that great ape is under total protection, it
may be possible that some may be killed.

I was disappointed on the hornbills. They are huge
birds with a beautiful horn.
http://orientalbirdimages.org/birdim...d_Family_ID=70

I never expect to see them close. I kept my eyes and
ears for them. I was very disappointed not to see a
single hornbill. They were supposed to be very common
in Borneo. It is a tragedy if the hornbills are found
only in zoos.

We planned to go up river and deeper into the forests.

That was when we got news of the tsunami. Some of you
were worried enough to write directly to me when I
wrote to all the groups to let you know we were safe
in Borneo.

All our plans changed after that. In the face of that
tragedy, I did not wish to continue with our travels.

You may like to see and read of that trip. My wife
Joy invites all of you to

Pictures of Kuching at
http://public.fotki.com/shimmertje

Account of the Kuching trip at
http://www.worldisround.com/home/shimmertje/index.html

For a few weeks after that even after we returned to
Singapore, the news of tsunami and its victims kept me
on the CNN and BBC.

I read all the letters you wrote me that time and I am
touched. But I just could not reply at all. It was
still kind of painful to write to the groups I was in
for years. After looking at all those devastation and
the troubles of other people, my problems seem more
mundane.

I decided to reach out to non English speaking parrot
lovers as I felt the lessons and knowledge I learned
may be appreciated by them as well. In my discussions
with them, I realised that while I wrote in detail,
that will not be sufficient for them to do what I have
done with Tinkerbell.

Over the next few weeks, I will be writing more.

I have stayed in touch with Mr Yu who is looking after
Tinkerbell in Taiwan. He also wrote to me after that
tsunami and I called him on the phone to let him know
we were safe, and to talk to Tink.

I last spoke to him a few days ago and to Tinkerbell
too. He told me Tinkerbell will get excited when he
talks to me. Then when the phone is given to her, she
will remain very still as she hears me. He send me
some photographs taken of her around mid January 2005.

You can see that in the folder below. Tinkerbell
still looks beautiful to me. You can see the state of
her health.


Tinkerbell and Yu family

http://community.webshots.com/album/266245549kjbdKy

Just two days ago, I was checking my camera and found
some photographs taken during my last few days in
Taiwan. I did not realise until I saw those
photographs that Joy caught the handover of Tinkerbell
to Mr Yu on that 13 Oct that I wrote about.

Tinkerbell - Last days and handover
http://community.webshots.com/album/266246996HQjfld

There is another album that perhaps you may like to
see. I was at a friend's house recently. You may
like to see me with Black Palm and Moluccan cockatoos
and other parrots that he kept. I stayed clear of them
for a while to let them get used to me. I talked to
them. I then knew that they liked me. Luckily I was
right. They got huge beaks.

Friend's parrots and 2s
http://community.webshots.com/album/247421104ZXMpJM

My friends, I will be going to Laos and Thailand over
the next two months. I rather be out of Singapore then
be in Singapore.

On Sunday 6 Feb, I will be flying off to Bangkok and
making my way into Laos. Eventually, in some internet
cafe somewhere, I will be reading all your letters to
me and continue my writings on the care and training.


Shanlung

[shanlung]

The forum complained that what I wrote was too long.

That can be read below

http://www.livejournal.com/users/shanlung/2005/04/

Warmest regards

Shanlung

[Crebain]

Hello Shanlung,

That was a very interesting read. Thanks very much for posting. I had never heard of a companion parrot that was fully flight-feathered. The bond of trust must be very strong to take a flying pet bird outdoors!

[Tiki]

Shanlung, welcome to the board! I am sorry you had to leave Tinkerbell in Taiwan and couldn't bring her to Singapore, do they not allow birds to be imported? It is amazing that she is free flying and returns on command, I would never trust my tiels to do that! I saw some of your albums, I have been to Taroko Gorge and Alishan with the sea of clouds in Taiwan-very beautiful! I have been to Borneo too and visited the orangutan sanctuary at Sepilok near Sandakan in Sabah. I am also a PADI advanced scuba diver, I have been diving in Thailand at Ko Phi Phi, it was beautiful then but not sure how the tsunami would have affected it. The most spectacular diving I have seen is Sipadan in Borneo. I was also in Laos and Cambodia (Angkor Wat) in 2000, I just loved it! Luang Prabang is great, also Luang Nam Tha where the hill tribe people were just roaming around town and it was very untouristy back then, unlike the trekking areas of Thailand. I hope you enjoy your visit!

[FairLight]

It is always good to hear from you.
Time can heal the pain, and replace that pain with loving memories of a truly
awesome time with your little grey Princess.
I am sure Tinkerbell is very much loved and brings much joy to her new family.
And, you will always be in her heart.
Congo African Gray's are very intellegent! And they never forget!!
Peace to you and Joy,
Linda In CA

[Vankarhi]

That was a beautiful story. It would break my heart to part with Skye (eclectus) you are a very brave person. i guess you probably had no choice. She will remember you always. I had a dog I had not seen for many years, when she saw me again, she remembered me and greeted me with a wagging tail and jumping on me and whining, but she loved her new family now. I have seen free flying pet parrots (on another forum). They train them to fly on command to them and to their perch etc and trust them to come back when called. I do not know how to do this and would not attempt it. I have heard them mention "clicker training" and "beaking" etc. She looks beautiful.

[shanlung]

Crebain,

You can, and everyone can, built the level of trust to a highest level, even beyond what existed with me and Tinkerbell. You only need to give up the thoughts that you are the alpha (which just does not exist in most parrots) and treat them as friends and fellow sentients.

Look at what I have gained for that so-called lose of alpha-hood. Without the photos and reports I made over those 3 years, what we had done together may not be believed. This is the legacy that I am sure Tinkerbell wanted others in the parrot world to know. Perhaps it may help me to ease my occasional pain in her absence.

Tiki,

It was bureacratic righteousness that make me so sick! I wrote enough of that in earlier rants and to repeat that will dredge up painful thoughts of the nightmares I went through. Luckily I planned and carried out contigency measures such as training my Taiwanese friend a year to look after Tink for me. So what I had done with her is clearly duplicatable.

It is exciting that you been to Taiwan as well and can relate to those places I had taken Tink to. Taroko is more than the photos that I had taken. I doubt any photos can ever do justice to one of the most beautiful place on Earth.

Laos at the time that you went in 2000 must have been awesome. I enjoyed myself in Laos last month and related in my blog. You would have recognised the names and places that I had been to. And while you were in Laos in 2000, I was making my way overland from Yunnan into Tibet all the time wondering why I was so stupid and mad to do that trip.

Fairlight,

From time to time, pain comes back to me. Nothing like that of the last day when I handed her over. I am thankful for that.

Vankarhi

It may just be fate for that parting. And for Tinkerbell Legacy to make its way across the world. If we remained together, my time will be spend with her in delirious joy and play leaving little time to think back of that journey we made and write it for others so they can know of an alternative way to live with their parrots.

Warmest regards

Shanlung