Where is Kiki? Owner offers $2,000 reward for return of missing parrot from Sacramento area
Kiki’s missing and her person thinks every day of the moment she flew away. Holly Franklin was doing it again late on a Friday morning, standing in the front yard of her Carmichael home, her African gray parrot’s cage perched beside her in the driveway, its door open in hopes of beckoning Kiki back home. Out on the back patio, KIki’s recorded sing-song call played on a loop.
Maybe she’ll hear it, Holly hoped.
March 9 was a bright day, warm and teasing spring that Sunday after a chilly stretch of Northern California gloom and rain. Franklin and her Kiki were out on the back patio’s hammock, a favorite spot of Kiki’s, for only a moment when Kiki took wing.
Almost two weeks later, the parrot, slate gray with a black beak and bright cardinal-red tail, is still missing.
“I replay that moment in my head a lot,” Franklin said, as her eyes clouded over. “I haven’t really slept since then.”
Franklin has papered neighborhoods across the region with bright yellow photos bearing the bird’s photo. She’s promised a $2,000 reward for Kiki’s return. She worried over the recent rain and hail that pelted the region and hoped that her gray bird took refuge under eaves, in a garage or with a good Samaritan unaware of who she belongs to.
Volunteers have joined the search from as far south as Los Angeles and as far away as Massachusetts. Franklin said followers from Great Britain to Australia and New Zealand are sharing her story and their support.
So it is then that Franklin’s search for Kiki is also a story of this far-flung yet closely knit community — yes, a flock — coming together to support and help one of their own.
“Holly reached out to us immediately,” said Kyle Kaplanis, standing next to Franklin in her front yard. Kaplanis flew Tuesday to Sacramento from Calgary, Alberta, where he and wife, Emily Vincent, have Gizmo the Grey Bird — and followers on social media, including some 550,000 on Facebook, glued to the gray parrot’s online high jinks.
Gizmo’s exploits with parrot brother Cosmo garnered some 13.3 million views on his site from Feb. 19 through Thursday, a glance at Kaplanis’ dashboard showed.
“We all have our parent community. We know how much they mean to us,” Kaplanis said. “They’re very intelligent and they create a very special bond with their people. Kiki’s thinking, ‘She’s my flock.’”
A ‘bestie from another nestie’
Kiki’s a rescue. Franklin salvaged her from under a car in a Folsom parking lot some two years ago, covered in motor oil, her wings crudely clipped. But Franklin slowly nursed her back to health as Kiki gradually gained the strength to clumsily, haltingly fly: first from her living room perch to the kitchen counter, then back and forth along the length of the narrow room. Kiki shares space with cockatoo Chloe and another African gray, also named Gizmo.
Franklin chronicled Kiki’s journey on TikTok, streaming from Carmichael to thousands of followers online where videos of singing, dancing, head-bobbing cockatiels, cockatoos and parrots like Kiki enthrall and entertain a passionate worldwide community of bird enthusiasts.
“She loves to dance and sing. She loves apples and grapes. She’s really smart but also really goofy,” Franklin said.
And, Kiki had found a boyfriend, virtually, at least, in Gizmo the Grey Bird. Their long-distance, California-to-Calgary relationship is marked by coos, calls and their spoken call-and-response: ‘Where’s Kiki?’ ‘Where’s Gizmo?’ and Kiki’s catch-all answer, a throaty “Wooo.”
“The Zoom calls are as beneficial as having a flock in the wild,” Kaplanis said.
“He’s her ‘bestie from another nestie.’ They see each other digitally and they know who they are,” Franklin said.
Franklin is now learning the extent of her flock’s reach — from a friend’s flight from north of the border to the many across the internet joining her hopes for Kiki’s safe return.
“We want to use our platform for good — for what’s best for the parrot community,” Kaplanis said. “We wanted to support Holly.
“We want to make sure Kiki comes back.”
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