YoYo the cockatiel went missing from its Kamloops home, Friday, April 8, 2022.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Tien Yu
April 08, 2022 - 4:37 PM
A family in Kamloops is distraught after their much cherished cockatiel went missing today.
YoYo the bird lives in a cage some of the time but is let free to fly around the house often.
A family member accidentally left a door open and the bird flew away from its Upper Sahali home on Gleneagles Drive at 12:30 p.m. today, April 8.
The owner, Tian Yu, is frantically scouring her neighbourhood in a kilometre wide circumference around her property, looking high and low and whistling for her pet. She is asking the public to keep their eyes open for YoYo as low overnight temperatures, lack of proper pet food and predators could kill it.
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“The question is how long he can survive,” she said. “He has never been outside before. We expect he hasn’t gone very far. We have been searching for hours. If the temperatures drop too low at night he might not survive, so we are doing everything we can to get him back to safety as quickly as possible.”
The one-year-old bird was purchased at a pet store in Salmon Arm. It has a green and yellow head and a band around one of its legs. Yu said YoYo both walks and flies, though it doesn’t fly very high.
“We are asking people in Kamloops, and especially the Upper Sahali area, to look on the ground and in the trees and contact us right away if you spot him,” she said. “And keep your ears open because he whistles.”
Yu said her kids are upset and she is stressed out and worried.
“I’m so upset and any help anyone can give us means a lot right now,” she said. “We love this bird so much. When you have a pet you know how it feels when you lose them.”
If you spot the cockatiel, call Tien Yu at 604-446-1792.
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