 One more. Oh, thank you. Hello Sniffers. My name is Marlene McCoy and this here is Vinnie. We want to welcome you to Storytime Sunday. I feel like I should say this, by the way, because sometimes some of you don't know what a sniffer is. A sniffer is somebody who loves the smell of birds. If you have a bird at all, you probably love the smell of birds. If you want to know more about being an official sniffer, then watch my movie Sniffers on YouTube. I will put the link below. Now, Vinnie is not interested at all today in what I'm going to say. Are you Vinnie? Vinnie is like, how can I go hang out with those pillows? No, Vinnie, come hang out with mommy. Yeah. But I had nothing to do with that. You come here. No, you come here. No, you come here. I know, but don't you want to help me tell them the story? Yeah. You don't care? That's really mean. Now, for today's Storytime Sunday, I thought I would tell you a story about... No, don't you want to be in the story? You're not even in the story. You know that probably. Tell me tell the story, baby. For this week's Storytime Sunday, I remembered a story in light of all the hurricanes and things that have been going on. And I thought, oh, this might be a really cute story to tell you guys. I swear after every story I tell you, I think to myself that I have no more stories. And then lucky for me, I find something. So here is the story. I don't know if you guys remember Hurricane Katrina, but you probably do. It was a huge hurricane, kind of like the ones that we've been having recently. And it did a lot of damage in Louisiana and other areas. Around that time, my brother decided to go work for FEMA. Now, when you work for FEMA, you basically get deployed to the area where the disaster happened. Stay in that area for as long as it takes to do all of the damage and assess it all. Okay, that's Vinnie screaming like a girl. I'm going to keep it in. He got caught in my, he got caught in my shirt, baby. It's okay. I feel like such a girl. Like, you want to go over there? Okay, you can just, let's just see if we can get through the story. Anyhow, my brother got deployed. Keep getting stuck in there because you fly too fast. Just walk like a normal bird. Come on, don't panic. It's okay. I got you. Okay, you're panicking. You're going to panic. You're going to panic. There you go. Go. You can't possibly still be stuck. Complete those do-it-stuck in my shirt. You need your nails to stick out. I'm going to take my shirt off. Well, it turns out I'm just going to have to leave Vinnie right there. Do you see him? Yeah. All sitting there in the dark. He's so funny. He just wants to hang out in the pillows because the pillows make like a fork. And he just wants to go under there and see what's going on. So to avoid all the Vinnie drama, I'm going to have to tell the story with him back there. Anyhow, my brother decides to go work for FEMA. So that means he's going to get deployed. And he went to Louisiana and Puerto Rico and other areas. And basically provided assessments to people's damage. So what that means is he would go to your home if it was destroyed. And go through like a checklist of things and damage and check it off. And he would be able to approve you for reimbursement of certain items. Depending on however they do it. But here's the thing. When an adjuster would show up to your house, he would give you like a five hour window. Say, I'm going to arrive between 12 and five. And you would have to be in or around that area for all that time waiting for the person to show up. And then you and them would go through the home and then you would figure out what you're owed or what you're going to get back. It was a very stressful process for the owners of the homes because they're waiting to find out how much they're going to be able to salvage. How much money they can actually get back to rebuild their lives. They for the first time, sometimes they're coming back to their home and checking out every single thing that is destroyed and making decisions like that. And I remember my brother telling me that he never thought it was fair that these people who were displaced had to wait five hours. So he would try to give really accurate times of when he was going to be somewhere. So my brother got to a house early and he was waiting for the person to arrive. Now you have to remember my brother can't get into someone's house to assess the damage unless the owners come to let them in. So my brother is waiting for somebody and he's sitting on the steps and it's taking them quite a long time to come. And here's something also important to note. You cannot do any damage to the home after the disaster. So for example, if the owners didn't have the keys to get into the house, you wouldn't be able to break locks to get into the house and then claim damage on that. Do you understand what I'm saying? Because everything has to have been caused by the disaster. So my brother is waiting and he's sitting on the stairs and for sure nobody has been to that house in at least three or four days. And he hears and my brother knows what a bird sounds like. And he is 100% sure that there's a cockatiel in there. So he starts running around checking all the windows, seeing if he can get in, seeing if he notices anything and he can't see anything, but he keeps hearing the noise. Next thing you know, he decides to try the doors to see if he can get in because he knows that this animal being there probably has been there for a long time. And has had no food. After about half an hour, the owner shows up and my brother says to the owner, excuse me, do you have a bird? And she said, I did have a bird. And he's like, no, you have a bird. I hear it in the house. And she broke down crying and she was like, oh my God, I didn't know if he would live if he was okay. I was so worried. I don't know what made them leave the bird or if maybe they just were out of the house and then the disaster happened. Remember, this was a very long time ago. So my facts could be inaccurate in that matter. But she was so relieved to find out that the bird was possibly still alive. But she had no keys to get into her house. She was distraught. They were displaced. She couldn't figure out how to get into the home. And she said to my brother, I need to get into the house. And my brother was like, where's your keys? Like, how are we going to get in? And she said, I don't have any. Everything's been displaced. I don't know what happened to them. Maybe they were destroyed. Just things like that. Like, you know, the thought process really wasn't there in the midst of this disaster. Now my brother knows he's not allowed to break into a house or break a lock or anything like that. And so my brother says, well, ma'am, under the circumstances by law, I am not allowed to let you into the house. But this is a matter of life or death because my brother is a bird lover. And he said, I cannot in good conscience not let us into this house. We must break into this house right now, whatever it takes, because I have got to get your bird to safety. Do you agree? And she's like, yes, yes. And he goes, do you mind, ma'am, if I break the window? And he smashed the window and went in the window, came in, opened the door and they got in and they saw the bird and the bird was a little bit hungry and needed some water. And my brother helped her take care of the bird and they sat and they hung out with the bird. And then of course they did the adjusting. And you can probably guess already, I don't have to actually say this. What happened to the window? Let's just say it got fixed. And my brother called me to tell me this story. I remember this. It was years and years ago. He just felt like rules don't apply when there's a little bird that needs saving. And he was so happy that day that he found a cockatiel. And it was a little yellow cockatiel just like our first bird. And he was so happy that this bird was alive. Because can you imagine if he was the adjuster that went in and saw a bird that had died? That would have been traumatic already. But for me, what I think is the most amazing thing about this story is that specifically he was the person that got sent there. He was the one that was sent to that house that needed somebody willing to break into it on that day. That's how things work. I think that's so interesting. It's so amazing how, yeah, how he was the one. And I know that's not an exceptionally funny story, but I think it's just kind of miraculous. I think even the littlest of souls have somebody out there watching them. And that's what's so amazing to me. So that is my storytime sign day. Vinny has a lot to say about that, right? Don't you? I can't even. I just got to tell you Vinny is the cutest bird in the entire world, aren't you? And he's the best kisser with the silkiest feathers. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this storytime sign day. It's just, it's one of those stories that I had to tell you because I feel like you bird lovers would so appreciate it. And it's just so funny how different people are designated to different people in this world for different reasons. Even the smallest encounters. That's why it's always important to be kind and be classy. And that's what we stand behind, right Vinny? Yes, Vinny is a very good bird. Thank you guys so much for watching. If you are wondering about our tent giveaway, I am going to be announcing those winners on Friday for Favorites Friday. So tune in. For those of you who are in a different country, I am Los Angeles time, so it may be Saturday for you. So just keep in mind that I run on Los Angeles time. That'll help you tune in. And for those of you who want to show me your birds, come join Parrot Station. It's our Facebook group for members that love their birds and want to share their experiences, pictures and videos with Parrots. If you are already on Parrot Station, please, please be kind. There's so many different opinions about things, but that does not mean that you need to attack anyone. I want Parrot Station to be a beautiful place where people can share birds, so please do not ruin it. Thank you guys so, so much. Please subscribe, share, comment and thumbs up this video. Thank you guys so much. Bye. Vinny, do you want to say bye? Huh? Yeah. I know. Yeah, so Vinny has a lot to say. And on that note, we're both going to go. Bye.