Zippy's Adventure
As the sun came through the window, Zippy heard his mom getting out of bed in the next room.
"Good morning, Mommy", he chirped. Mommy came into his room and opened his cage door.
"Hello, Zip. Step up." Mom took Zip to the kitchen and put him on his play gym while she had breakfast. The dogs ran in and out of the back door, enjoying the sunshine.
Zippy went back to his cage while Mom got dressed for work. While she was in the bathroom she heard him fly down the hall to the kitchen again.
I'd better go close the door before he flies outside, she thought. But when she got to the kitchen, it was too late.
She ran out onto the deck. "Zippy" she called, "where are you?"
"Here I am," Zippy chortled from the birch tree in the neighbour's yard.
"Come back home, Zip", Mom said.
"Oh, it is so nice up here. I want to stay out for awhile," Zippy chirped.
Mom went to the garage, got the extension ladder and took it around the fence to the neighbour's back yard. After struggling with the twenty foot ladder, she finally got it precariously balanced on the tree and climbed to the top, in her dress and heels. Zippy sat on a branch just out of reach and watched the proceedings.
"Come to me, Zippy, and step up," Mom coaxed.
"I don't want to," Zip said. "I'm having too much fun talking to the juncoes and the chickadees."
After two hours Mom was feeling very frustrated. "I have to go to work, Zippy; I'm already late. I have to leave you here."
On her lunch hour Mom rushed home again. She got out of the car and heard Zippy in the tree beside the driveway. "Oh, good, he's still here," she said to herself. But then she saw a little green blur flying away. She ran out to the road and saw him flying down to the next street. She ran after him.
"Where did you go, Zippy?" she called.
"I'm over here," she heard in reply from a group of birch saplings. She walked all around, peering up into the branches.
"Where are you, Zip? You're the same colour as the leaves. I can't see you." Zippy chirped again and she spotted his peach-coloured head.
Maybe I can bend this little sapling over and reach that branch, she thought. Carefully she pulled the sapling over and worked her hands out to the branch Zippy sat on. "Step up, Zip." But Zippy was still flaunting his independence and flew up into a bigger tree.
Mom was feeling angry at Zip by now. "You'll have to look after yourself. I've got to get back to work." Hopefully, she thought, he will still be there when I get home from work. I'll put his cage out on the deck so he can come home to it and get some food and water.
At suppertime, when Mom got home, she called out "Hello, Zippy", and listened for his distinctive voice. But no one answered. The cage was empty. She quickly changed her clothes and started walking around the neighbourhood, calling "Hello, Zippy" as she walked and listened. But all she heard were the local birds.
