A SERIES of remarkable coincidences has led to a Knysna traffic cop being reunited with his beloved pet parrot.

Two years after losing his valued yellow ring-neck parrot, traffic inspector Michael Davidson had a special Easter gift.

A chance purchase by distant friends and a spontaneous invitation to a braai brought about the reunion of owner and pet.

During the Easter weekend in 2005, Davidson was distraught to find that his female parrot and favourite of the family, Mia, had escaped after her cage had been knocked over in the garden.

After efforts to locate the bird by asking around and putting posters in local streets, he came to accept that Mia had disappeared forever. Having developed a close relationship with the pet, he was too upset to consider replacing her.

“She was a strange but very likeable character and always was friendlier to men than women.” he said.

Early in 2007, an itinerant street salesman approached Knysna residents Sakkie and Daleen Steyn with an attractive bird for sale. Recognising that the pet on offer was a relatively valuable pedigree parrot, they decided to acquire the bird and eventually obtained it for the knockdown price of R100.

The Steyn family returned home with their new pet and over three weeks began to realise that their bird was friendly to men and quite aggressive to women, as well as having a wide range of sounds and words in its vocabulary.

On Good Friday this year, the Steyns invited friends to a braai. They mentioned that they had acquired a parrot with an unusual character.

By chance among the guests was Hetta Beukes, a cousin of Davidson‘s wife Deidre, who remembered that Michael had lost a similar parrot. Davidson was then invited to see the bird, and realised immediately that it was his Mia.

The Herald Online **News**

Wow! What a great story!

great story happening right here is south africa

And they say the age of miracles is past.... too many coincidences to be random fate! What a great story.