{"id":199,"date":"2019-06-20T12:04:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T18:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elliotactor-author.com\/?page_id=199"},"modified":"2019-06-20T12:04:16","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T18:04:16","slug":"peanuts-big-advanture","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/elliotactor-author.com\/?page_id=199","title":{"rendered":"Peanut’s Big Advanture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In\nthe January 2016 Colorado Airstream Club Newsletter, I wrote in my Bio that I\nhad to prepare for the Newsletter as the incoming Club\u2019s 1st<\/sup> Vice President,\nthat we had a parrot and we were his favorite traveling companions. The Newsletter\neditor thought the comment was funny and asked me to write an article for our\nnewsletter expounding upon this statement,\nso that is what I did. Not only did the completed story get published in our\nlocal Newsletter which covers four states, but\nit also made it into the International Airstream magazine, the Blue\nBeret and made it out nationally and to fifteen countries where Airstream is\nmarketed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peanut,\nour small Pionus parrot, has been with Barbara and me now for almost 25 years and how we ended up with him is in\nitself is such a good story that I would like to relate it first before I delve\ninto my published story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nour kids were growing up we have always owned and enjoyed pet birds. We had a\nfew parakeets, a cockatiel, and even a\nsulfur crested cockatoo while we were living in Malaysia. Unfortunately, as our\ncockatoo was an endangered sub-specie, we had to leave him there in Malaysia when\nwe left and returned to the States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast\nforward about two years later while I was working in Boca Raton, Florida, I was\nhaving lunch with one the managers that reported to me and learned that he had\ntwo parrots at home and that his daughter was studying ornithology at nearby Florida\nAtlantic University. While we were talking,\nI happened to mention that we had a few\nbirds before and were considering getting another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About\na month later I received a phone call at home\nin the evening from a man who introduced himself as the Chairman of the\nOrnithology Department at FAU. He started off by saying that he had heard I was\ninterested in getting a pet bird. He then proceeded to grill me like he was\nconducting an online a job interview. He wanted to know about my family life,\nmy experience having birds as pets, my social-economic situation, who would\ntake responsibility for raising the bird if I was deceased, and if both myself\nand my wife were deceased. The only questions he did not ask me was about my\nsex life. When he apparently had finished with all his questions, I naturally expected to receive some information back\nfrom him, but all he did was to say thank you and hang up. It was a very strange\nphone call!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several\nweeks later I again received a phone call from the Chairman, and he told me that his department had been reviewing my\nsituation and they have jointly determined that the best bird for me would be a\nPionus Parrot. I told him that was wonderful,\nwhere can I get one? He then told me there were none available at this time and\nhung up the phone. I was basically dumbstruck. This whole episode had gone from\nbeing strange to absolutely bizarre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nthree months later I had almost forgotten about the whole thing when I received\na phone call from the Chairman informing me that a breeder down in Miami had recently\nhad a brood of baby White Capped Pionus Parrots. He was holding one for me and\nthat I need to go down there in the next 2-3 days and pick out the one I\nwanted. He then gave me the name of the breeder and his address and hung up.\nWhen I got off the phone and relayed the conversation to my wife naturally she\nasked how expensive is this going to be,\nand I told her I didn\u2019t have a clue, but I think I am committed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\ncall was I believe on a Thursday or Friday, so that Saturday morning we drove\ndown to Miami to see what the heck I had gotten myself into. We arrived at the\nbreeder shop, and he led us to an\nartificial tree in the back of the shop\nwhere there were about a half dozen adorable four-week-old Pionus Parrot\nfledglings perched in the branches. I went over to the tree, stuck my finger out, and one little fellow hopped right on to\nmy finger. I told the breeder we will take that one and then learned it was\ngoing to cost me $1000, that was around $333\/ounce, and that we would have to\nwait four weeks to pick him up after he was completely weaned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nthat is how we got Peanut, and no, I\nnever heard another word from the Chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nhere goes the original story Peanut\u2019s Adventure which looking back I should\nhave called Peanut \u201cThe Illegal Alien.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early\non we discovered that Peanut loved going in the car especially while perched on\nmy shoulder. In 1994, when he was only two years old, we moved to Colorado from Florida,\nand Peanut enjoyed the long drive sitting on my shoulder in my Porsche 944 Turbo,\nsometimes at speeds reaching well over one hundred miles an hour, like when we\nwere crossing Kansas. All I had to do is make sure I didn\u2019t forget he was on my\nshoulder and accidently pop open the sunroof. FYI, I had to sell that car the\nfirst winter we were in Colorado as I leaned that driving it on black ice was tantamount to attempting to\ncommit suicide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyhow,\nback to the Peanut story. Several years later in 2007 when we got our first\ntrailer we found Peanut also was happy just riding with us in his travelling cage\nin the backseat of the truck. So, we always took him on our trips and with him\nin the cage rather than my shoulder I didn\u2019t have so many shirts or towels that\nneeded cleaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2009 we planned a long trailer trip to the Maritime Providences of Canada,\nQuebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and New Foundland. Before\nwe left, I went online to check if there\nwere any issues bringing him into Canada. \nUpon checking with Customs and the USDA,\nwe learned that all they required was the bird must be healthy.  Since Peanut was very healthy, off, we went on our two-and-a-half-month\nadventure merrily going in and out of Canada and the U.S. twice. When going\nthrough immigration and border crossing you are required to have your trailer\nunlocked for inspection and all windows in your car must be down.  Both times while crossing back into the U.S.\nthe inspectors looked in the back seat and commented on what a nice-looking\nbird Peanut was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n2011 we headed back up to Canada, this time to Banff, Lake Louise, after touring Glacier National Parks.\nUpon our planned reentry, to the U.S. at\nthe Immigration station at Porthill, Idaho,\nwe were asked if we had any pets. I said yes, our parrot is in the back\nseat.  The border guard took a look and said\nplease wait and 15 minutes later, with us holding up a very long line of\ntraffic, came back with the news that we could not enter the U.S. at that\nCustoms port of entry. We would have to turn\naround and back track to a crossing in Washington where there was a USDA\nVeterinarian on duty who could examine our bird.  Another option he said was to go 200 miles east\nover 3 mountain passes to Eastport, Idaho where they also had a USDA\nveterinarian. Being from Colorado, three mountain passes is no big deal to us,\nso we said we would take that option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure\nenough, they were expecting us at Eastport\nwhen we finally arrived and were waved straight through across the border into\na parking lot on the U.S. side and told to wait.  About ten minutes later a vet came out to our\ntruck and asked for our CITES permit,  which we did not have a clue what he was\ntalking about.  He looked at Peanut for about\n5 seconds, said he looked healthy and told me to come with him.  He first charged me $125 for his 5 second exam\nand then explained we did not have the proper paper work for importation of a parrot\ninto the U.S., that we were in violation of several statutes and could be fined\nup to $5,000 plus double the cost of the bird which would then be confiscated\nand destroyed.  What I learned from him\nwas that parrots carry avian flu and need to be quarantined for 90 days before\nentering the U.S. I also learned that is if that wasn\u2019t enough, my little Pionus\nparrot happened to be an endangered species from Panama. I suggested that maybe\nI could just go back and leave him somewhere across the border back in Canada and\nI was informed by an immigration and customs officer who had joined us that it\nwas too late as I had already crossed the border and had committed the\nviolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ntold the veterinarian and officer that we had gotten Peanut as a baby from a licensed breeder and that he had\nnever been around other birds and exposed to avian flu. After more begging and pleading we were finally allowed to continue on\nour journey, but I was told to expect a\nletter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when we got home. I am sure part\nof the reason my entreaties were successful\nwas that I was wearing a Marine Corps baseball cap and the immigration and\ncustoms officer was an ex-Marine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nmonth after arriving home we received a Registered letter from the U.S. Dept.\nof the Interior requesting us to submit a statement regarding why we had no\npermit for this bird and why we should not pay the\npenalty. I wrote a detailed response explaining that we had the bird\nsince he was a baby, that he had all his shots, which I included the medical\nrecord, and professing our ignorance of the law and acute senility. The U.S.\nFish and Wildlife Service sent us a letter back stating that they had made a onetime\nonly decision not to issue us a ticket for the importation of our parrot. Were\nwe ever lucky!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nyes, I checked, Peanut is listed in the Convention\non International Trade as an endangered species and although he was born\nin Miami, FL, he obviously never got off his perch and got around to applying for\nthe proper passport. So – his foreign travel is forever put on hold, no more\ninternational travel for him. The only good news was we never got charged an\nimport fee for the case of Canadian wine\nwe had in the trailer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the January 2016 Colorado Airstream Club Newsletter, I wrote in my Bio that I had to prepare for the Newsletter as the incoming Club\u2019s 1st Vice President, that we had a parrot and we were his favorite traveling companions. The Newsletter editor thought the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154817921,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_wpcom_ai_launchpad_about_page":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_gallery_page":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_contact_page":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_events_page":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_video_page":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_portfolio_piece":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-199","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PaPDdH-3d","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":151,"url":"https:\/\/elliotactor-author.com\/?page_id=151","url_meta":{"origin":199,"position":0},"title":"MUSINGS and ESSAYS","author":"Elliot Actor","date":"19 Jun 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Click on the links below to view the article Origin of Electricity My Grandmother Baton Death March Promises Made Brush with the Law Can People Change? 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