Mr. and Mrs. Stubbs

By Nancy Sheffer

Nancy Sheffer Nancy Sheffer, also known as NancBird on the Internet, is a dedicated bird owner living with nine birds. She owns two lists on the Internet that focus on birds, and she helps to find homes for birds who need second homes. She is Activity Director at a nursing home where she uses pet therapy (especially bird) to help the residents. She writes the Alex's Corner for the Grey Play Round Table, a magazine dedicated to Greys.

Mr. And Mrs. Stubbs. Where do you think a finch couple got a name like that from? Let me tell you the story behind their names......

I am the Activity Director at a nursing home, and I have created a "pet therapy" program for the residents. We use the animals to assist in what we call "sensory groups" where the animals can sometimes stimulate and wake up some residents who have neither spoken nor reacted to their visiting families and the staff for months. Nothing is more rewarding than to see the twinkle in an eye or the face light up of a resident when a dog is brought to the room or a parrot says "hello."

As a part of this program, I’ve set up an activity room where some of the residents and their families come to watch television, drink coffee and talk with the animals: 2 guinea pigs, a hamster and 16 birds, consisting of a talking cockatiel, a lovebird and parakeets and finches. The activity room is set up as a tropical paradise decorated with plants, flowers, water fountains and BIRDS.

At one time, we had a large cage containing 16 finches, and the residents loved to watch the comings and goings with that many birds, and they would watch for hours. One day after an activity, a few of us came back to the activity room, and a resident remarked in an upsetting tone, "Look, there’s blood all over the cage!" I went to see, and yes, the perches were all bloody. I thought that maybe a finch had been caught in the cage, or it had perched on something sharp, as there were many finches with missing toes. After cleaning the cage and feeling everything for sharp surfaces, I could not figure out what had caused such havoc.

A few days went by and there was more blood! This time I saw a male finch biting off the toe of another finch......we had a cannibal in the cage, and a mean one at that! I checked everyone completely and found only one finch to have all of his toes. He was removed from the cage and now leads a solitary life in a separate cage.

Most of the finches were only missing a toe from each foot, but there was one bird who only had stubs left. I took him home where he now lives with a lady finch. I made flat perches for him and put in a parakeet toy that had a flat platform for him to rest on. He sleeps with his lady companion in a nest in the cage. I named them Mr. And Mrs. Stubbs.

Mr. Stubbs is now 4 years old, living happily and moving about as if he had all of his feet and toes. He sings along with my canary in the cage next to him. Mr. Stubbs overcame a handicap that could have killed him. He must have experienced incredible pain and horror in losing his feet, but that didn’t stop him from being a pleasure to us humans .....nor did it stop him from being the joyous bird he is today.

Great going, Mr. Stubbs!!!

Copyright  Nancy Sheffer