Toledo Tales

(Toledo, OH) The yellow-and-white Australian cockatiel named "Sparky" had been flying around the PetCo location on Monroe Street for "three or four days," according to store employees, and attempts to coax the bird back in his cage had been unsuccessful.

That is, until part-time stock clerk Josh Terwilliger showed up on Sunday afternoon.

"Pretty basically, it only took one swing of my tennis racket to subdue the bird," chuckled Terwilliger, demonstrating the forehand that brought the renegade bird back in line. "It flew by me near the aquarium aisle, and then: THWOK! Down went Sparky."

Terwilliger said that this is not the first "unconventional capture" of a runaway animal he has engineered in the three months he has worked at PetCo.

"I snagged a loose iguana with a pair of wire cutters I had in the storeroom last month," he recalled. "And then there was the pair of tarantulas I chased back into their tank with a can of hairspray and a lighter. Listen - all it took was one look at the 'Fireball of Death' to send those creepy bastards running."

Store manager Pam Kelleher, while disapproving of Terwilliger's methods, nonetheless admitted the clerk "has a knack" for retrieving wayward creatures.

"Josh does get results," she said, nervously eyeing Terwilliger as he shoveled bunnies back into an open hutch. "What he lacks in diplomacy he makes up for in lower merchandise costs. Still, the whole guinea-pig-on-a-skewer incident did leave some bad feelings with the Girl Scouts who accidentally let Scamper out of his cage last week."

Labels: animals, PetCo, pets, Toledo