DIAMOND POINT — Toby Keith, spooked by a squeak in the shop door, flew off into the woods, leaving his owners bereft.
That was Saturday afternoon, and Toby, a lilac-crowned Amazon parrot, has been missing since.
Robin and Anthony Frechette, who adopted the bird in January 2009, have tried everything they could think of: notifying nearby Wild Birds Unlimited in Gardiner and the Northwest Raptor Center in Sequim, calling the sheriff and placing an ad in the lost and found section of the Peninsula Daily News classifieds.
On Thursday afternoon, outside their home on Rhododendron Drive just off Diamond Point Road, Anthony and Robin put Toby’s cage on the deck, in hopes he might return to it.
“We’re just at a loss,” Anthony said. “We don’t know what else to do.”
The bird is about a foot tall, green with black highlights, a red forehead and a yellow bill. And as Toby is a friendly parrot, he might be out there talking.
“He has a large vocabulary, and I don’t mean cuss words,” Robin said.
Taught to talk by Anthony, the parrot is fond of reminding the Frechettes, “Toby Keith, handsome man, yes I am,” and “Toby wants peanuts.”
He also asks, “Where’s Dad?” and when Anthony comes home from work, the bird extends one of his feet, eager to perch on an arm or shoulder.
Lilac-crowned Amazons are expensive birds endemic to the Pacific coast of Mexico.
But monetary value isn’t what has saddened the Frechettes and at least one of their other pets.
Toby Keith — so named by his breeder — is Anthony’s brilliant green companion, hanging out in the shop while he does jigsaw puzzles, and chitchatting.
Toby is the largest of five birds in the Frechette household; he lives with Kojak, Kabob and Kaiser, the three doves, and K.B., a lovebird.
K.B.’s cage used to sit next to Toby’s, Robin said, but after his disappearance she had to move it into the doves’ room.
K.B. had stopped eating.
In their Diamond Point neighborhood and at Sherwood Assisted Living in Sequim, where both Frechettes work, there has been an outpouring of concern, Robin said.
Retirees who live nearby have been searching for the parrot during the day, and Robin and Anthony posted fliers and hunted for him in the evenings.
“Everybody knew Toby,” Robin said.
Anyone with information leading to the parrot’s recovery is urged to phone the Frechettes at 360-683-6242 or 360-460-1362.
“I’m not giving up hope,” Anthony said.
Then, with dusk approaching, he and Robin went out to look for their pet.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
