Victor comes home to roost after twister ruffles feathers

PIMLICO — Victor, the parrot who flew the coop and took refuge in the trees after his owner's mobile home was destroyed by a tornado Saturday night, is back home.

"That's my baby," owner Sharon Huffman said when the bird landed on her Thursday. She's had the Quaker parrot since last year.

Huffman wasn't home when the tornado tore through Strawberry Mobile Home Park off U.S. Highway 52 around 8:30 p.m.

She was eager to check on her bird and dogs, a Pomeranian named Rufus and a Shar-Pei mix called Little Bit.

Huffman had left the bird in his blanket-covered cage, his favorite sleeping spot.

She left the door open because Victor is "an escape bird. We would put him in the cage and, (every) time you turned your back, he was out of the cage," she said.

The dogs were quickly located, but nobody could find Victor. Huffman's spirit was crushed until she walked outside and heard the call of the not-so-wild.

"I could hear him. He was chirping. I know his sound," she said, but she didn't spot him until Sunday.

Victor hadn't gone far, just to the end of the Renee Circle mobile home.

Attempts to physically get Victor out of the tree only made him take flight.

"I was crying, 'He's gone, he's gone, he's gone, I know he is,' " Huffman said, but she continued to call his name and the flighty pet finally responded.

"He just turned around as pretty as you please and landed on my chest."

Victor didn't suffer any ill effects from riding out the tornado.

In fact, he's got new digs — a woman who just lost her pet bird saw a photograph of Victor in The Post and Courier and offered the little parrot a large cage.

Because of the damage to Huffman's house, Victor is temporarily staying with her mother, Betty Mizzell, who is also the mobile home park's manager.

"All I know to say is the Lord worked it out for her to get her parrot because she was so upset," Mizzell said.

Reach Nita Birmingham at 745-5858 or nbirmingham@postandcourier.com.