Elvis Sighted on Meher Center!

It’s true! The Dilruba office at the Center received this e-mail message from a visitor to Myrtle Beach:

I am Robert; my wife is Dianne. We were staying at Land’s End condos next door to Meher Retreat. We got to the condo on 4/13/09. On 4/14/09 our bird, Elvis, a two and one half year old Cockatiel who goes with us everywhere, accidentally got out of his cage and flew away into the direction of the Retreat. I jumped the fence at the condos and went after him into the woods. I would call to him and he would call back, but he was high in the trees and very frightened. I couldn't get him (4 pm); we kept calling to him from the balcony of the condo and he would call back but he finally stopped calling back around dusk. We left his cage out there overnight, to no avail.

The next morning my wife went walking (7 am) and found the trail from the beach into the retreat. She walked deep into the retreat but didn't hear a peep out of Elvis; however, she did wake up a doe, who walked away, then she said that she briefly saw a large cat about the size of a small German shepherd; the cat appeared to be blond in color and was also walking away. When she got back to the condo she told me about her walk and wanted me to go back with her, which I did around noon.

We walked for about an hour and met a lady and then a couple. All three people were very friendly, so I gave them my business card and asked them to keep their eyes out for our baby. He had been out in 55 degree weather overnight with misting rain. These are conditions that he is just not supposed to survive, so I kinda gave up. Dianne, however, said that she was sure that he was alive. She was sitting out on the balcony crying her eyes out and I was just staying back out of the way, reading.

All of a sudden she came running through the condo screaming that she had seen Elvis fly by with another bird. She immediately ran out the back door in order to see where they went. She grabbed a plastic shopping bag and a stalk of millet and took off. By this time I was grieving. We got Elvis when he was 5 weeks old (just a chick). I sat back down and waited, and in about 10 minutes she knocked on the door and I ran to it and when I opened it she said, “I've got Elvis!” Elvis was weak and very happy to be back with us. I've never seen him eat so much.

We are both very much animal lovers. It kinda lets me know how tough wild animals really have it, especially with big industry taking up the wooded areas which is their home. Dianne and I both feel that Elvis was blessed from the very second that he flew into the Spiritual Grounds that Meher Baba left for his followers. When we come back to Myrtle Beach we are going to come by for a visit (through the front gate—sorry for trespassing). Thanks again. Please let everyone read this.

Love Robert, Dianne, and Elvis Harris