Owners in a flap over missing parrot

Dubai: Mother's Day left Tahira Sayed feeling as sick as a parrot this year when her prized pet fled the nest.

Her pet, an African Grey Parrot called Gary, used her beak to slide open the door of her cage in their house in Muraqqabat and flew away on March 10. Gary used to address Tahira as Mummy.

Sure enough, the loss of their feathered friend has hit Tahira and her husband Abdul Gani Sayed hard.

"She was very smart for a bird," said a distraught Syed. "I keep worrying about her all the time. Gary was just like a child," said the father of two.

Gary, described by Sayed as being very smart for a bird, has become something of a local celebrity after posters offering a reward for her safe capture and return were put up around the neighbourhood. Advertisements about the missing bird have also appeared in the lost and found section of local dailies.

Famed among friends and family for her ability to speak the names of her owners and their children, Gary was also able to sing the popular Hindi song, Tujhe Dekha to Yeh Jana Sanam ... (I realised what love was when I saw you, Dear) and imitate polyphonic ring tones of cell phones. Dubai residents who see a singing parrot are urged to get in touch with Sayed on 050-6514075.

The family is leaving no stone unturned in their pet pursuit. Every evening, they go knocking at the doors of their neighbours and also visit various pet shops.

"Recently, I visited the bird market in Sharjah. There were several African Greys there but not my Gary. I called her name several times. Had she been around, she would have certainly responded," he said.

Bird calls lead to break-up

If Sayed's family is miserable because no one answers to the name of Gary anymore, a couple in far away London is shattered because their parrot of the same African Grey origin responded to the mention of 'Gary' and caused their break-up.

Chris Taylor, a 30-year-old British computer programmer, split with his live-in girlfriend when his pet parrot, Ziggy, began to imitate her saying, "I love you, Gary."

He would also make kissing noises whenever the name Gary was mentioned on TV.

Confronted with the evidence, Collins admitted to a month-long affair with a co-worker named Gary.

Fleeing from cages

Call it the bird flu scare or what you will, but parrots are fleeing from their cages in the UAE left, right, and centre.

Following in the flight of fancy by Gary, two other talking parrots Meethu I and Meethu II took off to unknown destinations from their cages in their owners' houses in Sharjah and Dubai earlier this month.

Like Sayed, the grief-stricken pet owners Nawaz and Verma have launched a hunt for the missing birds and have also offered a reward for their safe return. Both these birds have been with their owners for over three years.