Missing pet parrot reunited with owners in north Derbyshire after desperate search

Katharine Longden and her wife Deborah issued an urgent plea to find their beloved pet Otto, a green bird with an orange beak, after he took off from their home in Eckington on Wednesday night.

The brightly-coloured bird was later spotted in the Marsh Lane and Bramley Moor Lane areas, but the couple were unable to locate him and concerns grew for his welfare.

That was until a dog walker came across Otto on Thursday afternoon in woodland just off Staveley Lane – and after ‘a lot of patience and his favourite treats’ he is now safely back home.

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Katharine said: “Deb went to work about 1:30pm and she’d not long since got there when someone phoned her saying they’d seen him and they were talking to him, trying to keep him interested so he didn’t fly off.

"The lady who found Otto stayed with him and two other ladies that saw her came to the main road to get our attention so we knew where to find him. They were just brilliant.

"After a lot of patience, and his favourite treats, he eventually found his way down from the highest tree in the woods and flew straight on our heads.”

She added: "He was very hungry when he got home and wouldn’t let me out of his sight for quite a while. He was a little bit scruffy and you could tell he wasn’t quite himself but he’s back to normal today.”

Both Katharine and Deborah worked hard to spread the word after Otto’s disappearance, posting across social media and putting up posters.

The couple said the response to their appeal was massive and that they are so grateful for the help they received.

“We couldn’t believe our luck,” Katharine said.

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"We put posters up all around the village and we’d just got another 50 laminated to start putting on lamposts and then we got this phone call.

"We just keep saying spread the word, hopefully if someone’s walking and they hear him because he’s got a distinctive squawk, then hopefully they might have seen the post and phone us.

"That was our only hope and I couldn’t believe it happened.”

A message from Phil Bramley, Derbyshire Times Editor

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