This is a four page, true story about love, compassion, friendship,  and loyalty.

About eight years ago a wild Australian Sulphur Crested Cockatoo flew into a car and broke it's wing. The motorist took it to the Vet in Nerang, Queensland, who had to amputate the wing. We adopted her - for which we needed a National Parks and Wildlife permit - and kept her in a cage outside where she was often visited by wild Cockatoos. One of the things that impressed us was how she would push lettuce leaves through the bars of the cage, offering food to visitors.

On Sunday 23 July 2006, she again had a visitor.

As usual he spent a lot of time sitting on the cage with a tamper proof latch.

There was a lot of talking and grooming.  A bloke has to look
presentable when courting a bird!

Things got interesting when he approached the front door. . .

The clever fellow figured out how to undo the tamper proof latch!

He opened the door for a lot of mutual grooming and food sharing...

Oooh that's nice!  Scratch a bit more on that side, dear...

He was not shy to get into the cage and would go in and out a number of times.

They mated!  We are looking forward to beautiful baby cockatoos.  Will keep you posted.

Later on, the whole extended family came visiting but the special mate
was back every day so far.

We leave the door open during the day but if we forget, it doesn't matter - cockatoos have intelligence that rival primates.  Because she has only one wing, she stays inside or just sits on top.  Guess what happened next...