Thank you! Charley was a group effort rescue. He was living 5 hours away from me, and his owner posted on FB that if someone didn't come and get him within a couple of hours that he would turn him loose. My friend who owns a rescue asked the people she knew for volunteers who could go get him, and the guy agreed that he wouldn't let him loose as long as they showed up the next morning.
The owner was at least honest about where he got Charley, he came from a crack house. The people there and also the owner who was giving him up would blow the smoke in Charley's face.
When he got to the rescue it was obvious that Charley was addicted, and he stayed at the rescue for a few weeks and then he came to us. He was through the worst of his detoxing, but he had night terrors every night. Sometimes he would stand in his cage and just shake uncontrollably, other times he would thrash madly around his cage over and over as if something was chasing him. The non-stop screaming was hard, but we could hear the fear in his screams and we just prayed that the screaming would stop after the drugs were out of his system. It was heartbreaking to watch. He was with us for 9 months before he no longer showed signs of what he'd been through, except for the night terrors. Those finally stopped occurring every night, but they still come back sometimes even after 8 years.
When they do, he calls out "Daddy" for my husband in a terrified, pitiful voice and it's enough to break our hearts
Reg will go downstairs and after a few minutes of being held and reassured Charley will be okay again.
He rarely screams now, and when he does we can no longer hear fear, just a bird who wants more attention
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Except for the occasional nightmare, you'd never know what Charley had been through. He's a wonderful bird, and we adore him
