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Lost budgie's 'miracle' return inspires colouring book

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Esquimalt, B.C. -

Jazz and Jolly are two budgies who live like lovebirds and inspire their owner to sing.

“They were sitting there kissing each other in the mirror,” David smiles, referring to a video that shows him serenading the smooching Jazz and Jolly. “So I thought, this calls for a song.”

David pulled out his guitar and adjusted a Bob Marley classic to suit the occasion. Instead of the words “don’t worry ‘bout a thing,” he sang “kiss your honey every day.”

David’s wife Junie — who recorded the song on her phone — says Jazz and Jolly were constantly canoodling.

“You couldn’t even get a toothpick between them from the very beginning,” Junie smiles. “They just gravitated to each other.”

The budgies were inseparable. Until the day they suddenly weren’t.

“[Jazz] was gone! Zoom!” David’s recalls, stretching out his arms like the bird’s wings. “She almost flew sideways out the door to get through the crack.”

Jazz was missing. Junie and David were devastated

“Oh my God!” Junie recalls thinking. “How are we going to get her?”

They searched the neighbourhood for Jazz. When the bird didn’t return their calls, they placed a portable speaker on their deck playing a recording of Jolly chirping.

“Jolly was not so jolly,” Junie says. The bird would perch on a window seemingly looking out for his beloved. “Jolly was bereft.”

While Jolly mourned, Junie and David posted missing posters provided by ROAM, a local animal rescue.

“Inside I was going, ‘I don’t think there’s much chance of us seeing this budgie,’” David admits.

Davis was right. After five days, there was no sign of Jazz. And then Junie got a call.

“What? How is that possible?” Junie recalls saying when she was told a budgie had been found that looked similar to Jazz in a different municipality. “I’ll be right there!”

Junie was told a bird was found on the other side of the Victoria harbour from their James Bay home on the ground of the Esquimalt water park. It was Jazz.

“She flew across the ocean! A little bird with all of the predators and inclement weather,” Junie says, adding that after being treated by a vet and convalescing at home, Jazz fully recovered. “It was a miracle.”

“And Jolly was overjoyed,” David smiles. “His sweetheart was back!” 

Junie and David were inspired. She started writing and he began drawing.

Now the couple have published a colouring book based on the budgie’s story of getting lost and being found, titled Jazzy’s Miracle Mission.

“I hope it inspires people to keep faith alive,” Junie smiles.

“No matter how things are looking,” David adds. “There’s always hope.”

Which brings us back to that video of the budgies kissing and David singing, “‘Cause every little thing, gonna be alright.”

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