It rained about two nights ago, and then the next morning. So yeah, they kept her a couple of days. Not sure why, but I'm glad they did eventually realize who she belonged to, and called.

It's possible that it took them a while to think of looking on craigslist. Not everyone knows that it's a major resource for lost and found pets. But no matter what their reason was, the most important thing is that they found her and gave her back to you. Everything else is a minor detail.

The wind, rain and falling temperatures started on Friday afternoon/evening and continued into early Saturday morning. The later part of the morning was kind of nice, but around noon it started getting nasty again. The weather is nice and clear now but the temperatures are still pretty far below average and the Weather Channel is saying there's a 100% chance of rain tomorrow. I'm really glad they caught her before the weather changed because I don't know if she could have survived it.

I wonder if they fed her anything. Sure it may have taken time to figure out about the owner (especially if they had something else going on). But you are right, it's not the most important in this story.
I have a funny story about lost stuff and reward. Once, my daughter was hanging out by the front porch and she put her simple flip cell phone on the hood of my car. I drove off without seeing it, the phone fell on the ground before I turned to a big street. A woman who always walks in the neighborhood found it and picked it up. Then we called the phone trying to find it or maybe she called us, and she gave us her address. I told my daughter to pack all her money (a few dollars back then) and offer it as reward. She wasn't happy about it, but I said it would be fair. We talked to the woman and she was nice. Then I gave my daughter a slight push: "it's time". Looking at the woman VERY unfriendly, she asked - "Do you want money?"
the woman was astonished and said No (I was sure she didn't want any money from a child but wanted to teach daughter a lesson of how to look after her belongings)

They probably offered Lucy some food, but it might not have been anything that she recognized as being edible so she may not have eaten it. It's not likely that they had bird seed on hand unless they put it out for wild birds. If they offered her some torn-up chunks of wheat bread she would recognize that, since my babies eat lots of it while they're weaning. But I don't know how much other human food she would recognize, especially if they offered it in a way that she wasn't used to.

I wasn't sure about food, but considering her tail feathers were wet when I got her out, they would have at least given her water. She might not have taken it anyways, considering she would probably be pretty stressed, after being stuffed in a laundry basket.

It definitely didn't take much to coax her to eat, so she most likely didn't eat a lot while she was there. Since she was weak though, she had some trouble, up until I soaked the millet in Gatorade. That definitely got her energy back.

I hadn't thought about what they used for a cage while they had her! A laundry basket was a clever way to get the job done, and unlike a cardboard box it would have given her some daylight so she could see enough to eat if she wanted to. You're right though, it would have been stressful since it's definitely different than what she's used to. Possibly not as stressful as being outdoors though, she may have felt more protected in the laundry basket than she did outside. At least there weren't any hawks circling over her head.

That is true. It was rather cold in the room though, since it wasn't heated. She said it was the only room they could put her in to protect her from the dogs. So she was probably still pretty uncomfortable. Spent a lot of time sunbathing when she got home.

She was hanging on the side of the basket when I got her out of it. Probably got excited when she heard me, and already began to try and climb out. She was definitely excited to see me. I can never forget that sound she made, nor can I verbally re-enact it. Sounded like a chick's way of begging for food, mixed with a whimper. It was kinda pitiful.

Now I only hope the cage is big enough for two birds, after quarentine is over. I plan on getting a better cage, anyways. I promised myself to get a better cage for her, if I got her back. I probably would have gotten one anyways with the new baby. I'm aiming for one of these, then probably either put Joey or the manikin finches in Lucy's current cage. Of course, I'm waiting until Lucy feels better, first. Could probably go on the Christmas list, since I haven't really thought about what I want, yet. A Christmas present for my birds, so to say.

That's a nice cage, but if you'd like one that's a lot bigger at half the price, then check out this baby: http://smile.amazon.com/Prevue-Products ... 00176F5L0/

It's not as fancy as the HQ cage, but it's very decent quality for the price. I think this is the lowest price I've ever seen for it too, it's usually more like $130 if I remember right. I've got the bigger version, and the only thing I don't like about it is the seed cups that came with it. But that's easy to fix, I just bought some "coop cups" and use those instead. Here's a link to the bigger version: http://smile.amazon.com/Prevue-Hendryx- ... 0002AQ228/ But it's selling at Amazon's standard price, not a fabulous bargain price like the smaller one.

This picture was taken inside the Prevue cage. You're seeing maybe 1/3 of the total interior space, and you can see how easily it accomodates 7 fledglings. You can see some coop cups too.

I have the same cage and I don't like how tall it is. It is so called fly cage (I am guessing that's why it's so tall, right?), but my birds fly elsewhere (honestly, I can hardly imagine how any bird would fly in that cage... unless it's a night fright). My birds only sleep in the cage and the smaller version is a little bit too small for 10 birds (I didn't plan on keeping all of them). Of course, for 2 birds it would be more than enough. Contrary, my birds like those seed feeders that came with the cage, I even got more as replacement when hooks got broken
Fledglings are adorable

Hq flight cages are decent.