About a month ago I was at the kitchen sink making breakfast for my children before heading off to the Oregon Dental Convention in Portland, OR, when I saw what looked like a parakeet waddling along the edge of the pond in our backyard. It caught my eye because the bird had beautiful light blue feathers and seemed to be unable or unwilling to fly. I continued to watch as the bird hunkered down under a large rock and sat nearly motionless for the next 10 minutes or so. After getting my kids on the bus I went back out into the backyard and sure enough the bird was still sitting there under the rock. I went over and easily picked the bird up without any trouble. It was obvious the bird was a domesticated pet that had somehow gotten loose. 
Luckily we had a birdcage in our garage that we were able to dust off and place the bird inside. We took a couple of pictures of the bird and my wife and I posted the experience on Facebook. I was unaware that my wife and daughter also posted a picture of the bird on Instagram as well. Over the next couple of weeks I scanned the lost and found section of Craigslist to no avail. Eventually our family settled into a routine with our new found pet bird. It only took a couple weeks for the bird to get used to it’s new surroundings before it started chirping and singing regularly. The bird was also quite friendly and enjoyed perching on my children’s fingers and even riding around on their shoulders.
Fast forward to last Thursday. My daughter, Halle is student at Stoller Middle School in Portland, OR, and was hanging out with some of her friends. One of her friends, a boy named Drake, found out that she and my wife, Mari have Instagram accounts. Drake started following them both on Instagram and came across the photos of the bird that had been posted a month earlier. He commented that he had lost a bird that looked just like that about a month ago and that the bird’s name was “Ice”. The next day, Friday, My daughter ran into Drake again after school and they got to talking about the bird again. Drake sent Halle a picture of his bird Ice. She “pic-stitched” the pictures together and send it back to him, and sure enough, it was a dead ringer. 
It turns out that Drake lived only about 5 blocks away and that his bird had accidently flown away when the front door was left open just the day before the bird was found by me. What’s even more coincidental is that Drake and his family are long-time patients of our TenderCare Dental practice! A quick phone call was placed and and arrangements were made to reunite Drake and Ice. It was obvious when Drake came to get Ice that they knew each other. It was a great way to start the weekend and reinforced to me how powerful and wide-reaching social media platforms like Instagram have become and what a small world it really is.