A family who has been searching for their lost Alexandrian parrot ever since it flew out an open door a year ago, are once again feeling the loss after chasing a false lead. The owners of the bird named Fruit Loop were in a pet store in Red Deer when an employee mentioned a customer had said she came across a parrot that flew through her window one day and landed on her shoulder. Evelyn Van Hoeve jumped at the prospect of finding her long-lost bird and released contact information through the media, inviting this customer to reach out. "What it comes down to is we think we found the lady," she said, referring to a woman they were told about in a Red Deer pet store. "This woman finally called and said I do go to the pet store there and I did find a bird. The bird didn't fly through a window and land on my shoulder - she said the bird flew into the window." "You know when one thing is translated into another it's amazing what kind of story you get," Van Hoeve said. "At any rate, the timeline doesn't measure up with the bird that she has. She has had that bird since 2016 so that would be an impossibility," she said. Fruit Loop was lost in 2017 and is deeply missed by their African Grey parrot, Bob. "She would say mom, she could say apple, she would say 'look at you, woohoo," and "you're so cute." She is a talker but very skittish towards people she didn't know. But if you were eating fruit, fruit comes before not knowing you." "Who knows? It could have been the whole searching for nothing," Van Hoeve said. "If after all is said and done, we've gotten the word out there, and we still don't hear anything back then at least we tried." "For now, we're just leaving it at that to see who else will make contact with us.” Anyone might know of Fruit Loop's whereabouts may contact the Van Hoeve family at 403-333-1964.
