EAST PROVIDENCE – Is it better to have loved and lost?

Sandra Seymour would know. She’s done both.

She’s been looking for her parrot, Ricky, for a long time now. The search has taken its toll on her. Though she lives in New York City, she comes back to Riverside often to look for her beloved pet. He was lost in Riverside months ago (she and the bird have ties here) and, though he has been spotted in the area at least once, he still hasn’t turned up.

Watch an audio slideshow here.

And she has tried everything. Since losing Ricky she has called the East Providence Police, East Providence Animal Control Center, Providence Animal rescue, Warren Animal Shelter, RI Wildlife, and various other animal agencies, veterinarians, pet stores … ”anything I could think of.”

“I made flyers and put them up all around the area, in pet shops, animal hospitals, supermarkets, the Terrace bulletin board, the Carousel, and e-mailed them to the various agencies. I went online. I registered Ricky on numerous websites for lost animals, and some that are specifically for lost parrots. I put Ricky on craigslist.org, which is how I got the e-mail that he was spotted near the Citizens Bank Operations Center. I made a CD of my voice calling to him.”

That e-mail was her best lead so far.

“A wonderful guy named Brian who saw the listing took the time to e-mail me to say that a green parrot flew right in front of the windshield of his car as he slowed at a speedbump when he was leaving the center.”

Since then she has spent countless hours walking around with Ricky’s favorite bells, calling to him. She has driven around the streets of Riverside slowly, calling to him. She even went so far as to put his cage on her rooftop while she drove slowly through neighborhoods near the Citizens Bank Center where he was spotted.

“When I go to the Center, on the grassy knoll a little past the speedbump where he flew in front of Brian’s car, I set up his cage with food and water and his favorite stick, and play the CD, hoping if he sees it he may fly to it. I also went door-to-door handing out more flyers and talking directly with people in the neighboring areas. Everyone has been wonderfully supportive and say how they will keep an eye out for my little green guy.”

“I return to Rhode Island very often as I have some relatives and good friends there. And it’s always a nice break from the craziness of NYC. Although I have only a few people I know living in Riverside in the past few years, I would once in awhile take a drive to ride the Carousel, walk or skate along the bicycle path and, of course, go to Crescent Park as a kid.”

Ricky had been living in Rhode Island for the past eight years while she was living in New York City. And this is not the first time she’s given her heart to a feathered friend. There have been many who have come before Ricky.

“I pretty much have always had birds in my life – from feeding bread crumbs to the wild birds in my back yard as a kid growing up in Warwick, to taking in Pretty Boy, a very charming and smart blue parakeet after my dear grandmother passed away when I was about 13,” she said.

“While living in my first apartment in Brooklyn in the early 1970s, I got my first small parrot – Oona – a Half Moon parrot. Oona actually grew up with a tiny kitten – Herbie – I took in, found abandoned with his siblings in a cardboard box on the side of the highway en route to the Newport Jazz Festival in 1970. Oona would actually tolerate Herbie going inside her cage. They were good buddies, and we all lived together in Brooklyn.”

Fate took a hand when she found Ricky. It was the early 1980 and she was in a “very funky loft” under the Manhattan Bridge. At the time she had a Nanday Conure who became sick and died suddenly. Soon after she spotted an ad in The Daily News for parrots on sale at a pet store on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn.

“It was still legal at that time to capture wild parrots and the store had large cages of many Cherry and Blue Crown conures. Ricky was the one rogue parrot that managed to escape and was walking around on top of the cages. Of course he was the one for me. And on sale for $39.95.”

They’ve been together ever since. She’s hoping this story will help draw attention to her cause and maybe put people on the lookout for Ricky.

“It’s getting colder for sure. I have not heard from anyone at all recently regarding and sightings or sounds of Ricky.”

Ms. Seymour would like to thank May, Jody, Brian and especially Janet - people who have helped her in her search since Ricky was lost.

If you have any information about Ricky please reach Ms. Seymour at sandeee88@aol.com or 917-279-4183.