Yes, it's me again, and today I'm going to tell you about one of my strangest cases. You've already heard the name of it, and you probably didn't understand it.
- Well, yes, we know the saying about free cheese in a mousetrap, - you will say - but what is the connection between cheese - real or from the proverb - and parrots?
I thought so too but... It will all make sense now.
***
My host parents have friends. And they have an eight-year-old daughter, Sonechka. Sonechka is infinitely kind and madly loves all animals. If you've seen anyone like her, you know that such children usually dream of a pet. Someone about someone specific, and someone about anyone. Sonia had been dreaming about a parrot for years and had been begging her parents for a parrot for a long time. By the way, Sonia needed not any parrot, but a parrot that could be taught to talk, or, in the extreme case, a grown-up talking parrot that had been left without an owner. And so, finally, Sonia waited, and her parents promised her a parrot, which was to be a birthday present. If they had known where this would lead.....
No, for Sonia's birthday she did get a present - a talking parrot. But... it never made it to the mistress. It turned out that most of the words that this parrot knew were swear words, and such that I will not even repeat them. And of course, Sonja's parents immediately called my owners, and we immediately rushed to help.
***
Valera and I listened to the parrot story again, but we didn't really understand what we could do here. And then I saw a newspaper open on an article that seemed to me to be about parrots. I called out to the owner:
- R-wow!
Valera came over, quickly studied the article, and said:
- Well done, Thomas!
- Did you find something? - Sonin's father Eugene came up to us.
- Yes, an article about a talking parrot - replied Valera - By the way, lived not far from here.
Eugene looked at the headline:
A multi-child family had their talking parrot stolen.
The article was about the Metlyaev family, whose eldest daughter, Lyuba, had a birthday, she was six years old. The family lived quite modestly, and in order to please Lyuba, who had also long dreamed of a parrot, they saved up money for months.
- You have all heard stories about parrots that were bought at the market as gifts for children from a person who took them from an unknown place and then turned out to be vicious and would not contact anyone," Lyuba's father said. - In addition, these parrots often turned out to be adults.
The Metlyaevs went on to say that the thieves had broken into the apartment when not only they themselves, but even none of the neighbors were at home. By the way, they only stole the parrot, they didn't touch anything else. And here's what alerted me: this parrot was stolen right before they bought Sonia's parrot. It was less than a week later. And I wasn't the only one.
- What did the first owners of this parrot say? - Valera asked - Why did they decide to give it away?
- And we did not see them - answered Eugene - two men gave it to us ...
- And they didn't know anyone from the parrot's family, did they? - Valera asked.
Everything was clear without words: Sonya was going to get a parrot, which had been stolen from Lyuba.
Why was he taught to swear? Most likely, the robbers did it by accident. But what to do now? After all, this parrot could not only be given to Sonya, but also returned to Lyuba.
- The main thing is to decide what to do with Lubin's parrot - sighed Sonia's mother - and we'll figure it out ourselves.
And then Valera asked:
- And who in our city deals with parrots?
In this way it was possible to help everyone. With the help of the newspaper I told you about, we called the zoo, where we found a parrot expert. He helped us decide what to do in all three cases: for Sonia he found a parrot that was still quite small, but already spoke a few words; Luba was given one that had been returned by the first owners (and she never found out that it was the wrong parrot). And the parrot that cussed, the breeder kept it. For re-education. And I want to give you advice: be careful with parrots! See you again!
The end