Many, many birds come through the Good Place – some are domestic and some are wild, some stay for a while and some stay forever. No matter who they are or what their parents were they are welcome here at the Good Place.
Some of their stories are below:
The Lories – Lulu, Sunshine and Georgie Girl
Three little rainbow lorikeets who’ve each arrived at different times over the years, all clearly domesticated birds that have escaped at some point and been injured along the way.
None can fly far, and LuLu can’t fly at all. He doesn’t let that stop him though, he is an expert climber and can make his around the whole of his large aviary in less time than it takes me to fill the feed bowls.
They’re all great friends.
Although, as the only girl, Georgy Girl can get pretty annoyed with the boys’ antics and squabbles at times
The Quail – Jelly and Jiminy
Jelly and Jiminy are teeny, tiny king quail.
You can see just how small they are when they stand against the backdrop of a medium sized duck.
Jelly and Jiminy were rescued by a sanctuary based in Melbourne, but with limited outside space for them the boys made their way here to the Good Place, where they enjoy a large outside run that they share with the guinea pigs.
Molly the Goose and her ducks Jemima and Juno
Molly hates ganders. Try as they might, her previous people could not convince her to play nicely with the boys – attacking and maiming was more her style. So she was of no use to the farmers. Luckily for Molly they reached out to the Good Place, rather than do to her what is done to many a non-cooperative goose, and she has been here ever since.
Despite her dislike of ganders, Molly is nevertheless a sociable girl. The only other residents here who come close to speaking Molly’s language are two ducks – Jemima and Juno. This trio are never far apart.
The Roosters: Jackie, Rocky and Balboa, Princess and Little Richard
Roosters are a constant in any farm animal sanctuary as so few people take on these wonderful boys, which is so sad – they have the most wonderful personalities and are nearly always incredibly doting on any girls within their orbit.
Everyone is different – Bally, AKA Balboa, is one half of the Rocky Balboa brothers, but in truth they are definitely more lovers than fighters.
Jack has leg issues and spent a month or more in a wheelchair unable to walk at all. He now has an old-man limp, as I call it, but he still manages to keep up with his girls most days.
Princess is the strangest looking one of all – a bit of this and a bit of that, he’s not quite sure what he is, and neither was I when I first named him.
Little Richard is another with leg issues – although this time it is a broken foot. It is slowly healing and before too much longer he will be back to rounding the girls up each morning.
Rocky is the girls favorite, and he is constantly surrounded by at least 2-3 of them.
The Hens
Another constantly changing group are the hens. Hens tend to be easy to find homes for, although truth told I am quite picky about where they go as everyone, even little chickens, need a family to love them for who they are not exploit them for what they create.
The Drakes: Shrek, Billy-Bob, Amy and Dandy
These most handsome of boys are a handful, they spend most of their time chasing the girls of course, and the rest of their time arguing amongst themselves over who should be allowed to chase the girls. But they’re a loveable bunch really. Together they keep an eye on the skies and warn loudly of any approaching danger – allowing the girls to scatter and any little ones to hide.
The Muscovy Girls
The muscovy girls are a strange mix – they are shy but love to hang out by the back door all day, they are argumentative but hate to be alone, they love water, but only at certain times of day. They are ducks. There’s quite a few of them, mostly old now, but every year a few young ones seem to arrive from around the area, after mum’s go missing or are killed and their people don’t have a heater for them. They are all welcome of course.
Here at the Good Place we try hard not to bring new lives into a world that already has too many unable to find a home of their own. Every now and then though, one of the girls succeeds in hiding an egg long enough for a new little one to pop its head out one morning.
The Guinea Fowl
The four little Good Place guinea fowl were the cutest, quietest little things when they first arrived several years ago.
The same cannot be said of them now! Relative to their size, guineas are hands down the loudest of all the Good Place residents and they love to try and outdo each other. On the upside, nothing gets past them – snake, fox, a leaf on the wind – all are cause for raising the alarm. They may not be a neighbour’s best friend (that’s OK I don’t have neighbours) but they are definitely the cutest little dinosaurs still walking today.
The Budgies
Five very beautiful budgies are some of the newest residents of the Good Place. Having been deposited on the doorstep of a wildlife rescuer when no one was home, these obviously domestic birds were in a poor condition. After many months of care they were ready for their new home but there wasn’t one to be found anywhere. So rather than leave them in a small indoor cage for the foreseeable future, their carers reached out to the Good Place.
Today they have a beautiful aviary all of their own and can be heard happily chattering away to each other as you wander around the sanctuary.
The Pigeons
Sometimes we’ll get a call about a pigeon in need of help. As a non-native bird, pigeons often can’t stay with wildlife carers for long, and the Good Place becomes their safe haven – sometimes as babies, sometimes as fledglings, sometimes as adults who’ve had a near miss from a car or a cat.
All are welcome here at the Good Place.