About Nate & Betsy Lott - Founders of Mollywood
About 10 years ago we were living in Campbell, CA when our neighbors across the street were going to let their two parakeets go free (in late October) because they simply didn't want them. We spoke up and that's how we ended up with two budgies in our apartment. About 2 or so years later, we saw an ad for a baby parrot for $100 in the mini-ads one day. Upon going to check it out, we found out they meant "parrotlet" but we ended up buying a supposedly young blue crown conure. Later we learned she was probably 2 years old at least given the import band on her leg.
A few months later while on our way out to work with our horse, we stopped at the local feed store that just happened to also have parrots for sale. We fell in love with the 8 month old Blue and Gold macaw there and did what all ignorant people do: Impulse Purchased the bird. This also led us to impulse buy two more birds: cockatoos.
Wanting to do the right thing, we thing got busy trying to learn everything possible. We bought all the old copies of Pet Bird Report there (now called Companion Parrot Quarterly), we bought pellets because that's what the store owner had all the birds on, and we also bought "A Guide to a Well Behaved Parrot". And that was just the beginning. We went to seminars, read everything we could find, asked questions, found a vet, you name it.
Our lives were fine for about a year when out of the blue, the same store owner we got the others at called us to ask if we wanted another macaw - one who was biting and screaming his way out of house and home. We must have had "STUPID" labeled on us somewhere because we said yes, sure.
Over the course of the next 6 years, we inadvertently got involved with parrot rescue. It started out as simple rescue and adoption and gradually grew into more sanctuary needs, as many of the birds coming in were simply no longer companion quality birds. Here are some simple stats for just us:
- In 1996 we bought a house in Sunnyvale, CA and moved in with 12 birds.
- In January 2000 we took our first vacation in over 5 years - we had 44 birds at that time.
- In January 2001 we were able to take what will probably be our last vacation for some time - we had 92 birds.
- In October 2001 we moved lock, stock and flock to our new farm in Washington - we had 131 birds. (Two lovebirds were adopted shortly after we arrived).
- Nate had to fly back to Sunnyvale to clean, repair and get our house down there ready to sell. He was home for exactly 7 days and already had 12 birds arrive there. It never ends….
- Meanwhile, back in Bellingham, we have one cockatoo flying in from a fellow rescue organization in the Mid-West and 4 more cockatoos coming in from other parts of Washington.
We seem to have a special insight into the needs and wants of cockatoos and after coming to the realization that Moluccans would almost rather be dead than in captivity, we decided we had to do something to help those we could. (And pray for all those we couldn't.) We moved from California to Washington for a few reasons:
- Cost of living (Betsy needed to be somewhere she could devote 100% of her time to the flock - and not some full time job to help support it).
- Space for the birds (and room to scream all they want)
- There have basically
been very few parrot rescue programs in the Pacific Northwest in general
(and particularly nothing professional in Whatcom County). The demand
has been growing greater with each passing year.
And that's us in a nutshell. We would be more than happy to expand further but there are other parts of this website you need to see!
MOLLYWOOD PARROT RESCUE & SANCTUARY
501(c)3 #72-1528671
PO Box 28296 | Bellingham, WA 98228-0296 | 360-966-7490
mollywood@parrot-rescue.org