05-08-2025
Pet bird found in Ligonier Township, some 50 miles from its home in Shaler
A small domestic cockatiel has two communities in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties atwitter.
Thursday night in Allison Park, Samantha Ro was holding the door open to her house for her service dog to come inside when her bird, Smoke Scream, decided to fly through the door.
"I was panicked because we have crows in the area," said Ro. "We have hawks, we have kites, we have owls, we have deer. And I was like, what happens?"
Ro quickly went searching near her home and put the word out on social media that her 3-year-old cockatiel had flown the coop.
"Smoke Scream is probably less than a pound," Ro said. "But he has been raised with from 6 weeks old with two fully grown Great Danes and a German Shepard. He is afraid of bubkes. He is afraid of absolutely nothing."
And maybe it was this mighty little bird's fearlessness that, over the course of two days, allowed him to fly from his home in the Shaler neighborhood of Allison Park to Ligonier Township and the Village of Rector in Westmoreland County, some 50-plus miles away.
Tired and hungry, he landed on a picnic table where people were eating and decided to help himself, and that's when Ligonier Valley police flocked to the scene.
"I get asked questions about how to handle certain things at times, this is obviously one that I had no clue," Ligonier Valley Police Chief Mike Matrunics said.
Matrunics says his department is no stranger to helping lost pets get reunited with their owners, but he admits a small-sized parrot was a first for them.
They brought the bird back to the station, where he made himself at home, even helped with some paperwork.
The police put it out on social media that he had been found, and missing animal groups in the region went to work, eventually connecting Ro to the department. Mama and baby bird were reunited on Sunday.
"It is such a relief," said Ro. "It's like OK, home is home again. I was really blessed that this online community came together and even more blessed that these police officers were the kind of police officers that you want to be in the community."
Now, as a thank you to the Ligonier Valley Police Department for finding Smoke Scream, Ro has changed the bird's name slightly to Smoke Scream Richard Ro. Richard was the name that the police gave to the bird before officers officially knew what his name was.
