West Virginia

Lady Gouldian finches go gaga – Stranded customer, birds rescued by W.Va. agent

It was a different kind of tweet. Driving a car filled with 200 endangered Lady Gouldian Finches bound for a pet store in Cleveland, Ohio, Wade Stowe left sunny Georgia on Dec. 16. His trip quickly turned into a nightmare.

“The weather report was normal for Georgia and Ohio, but in between I ran into a mess,” said Stowe, now safely home in Augusta, Ga.

Stowe encountered the snowstorm that stranded thousands of motorists with ice- and snow-covered interstates.

“I thought I’d be okay if I just took my time,” he said.

Somewhere in West Virginia, Stowe was stuck at the top of a mountain, looking at tractor trailers sliding and skidding on the icy road as trailers tried to pass their tractors on the way to the bottom of the mountain.

Finally making it out of the treacherous mountain pass, Stowe said he relaxed a bit as he reached a flat plateau.

“I was going about 20 miles below the speed limit when I hit a patch of black ice, and the car spun around, damaging three of the four sides as I hit the guardrail.”

Feathers literally flew about the car as the colorful birds were jostled in their cages during the crash.

Shaken but uninjured, Stowe called 911 and was told that he needed to help himself since it was a single vehicle accident with no (human) injuries. (Seven birds died in the crash.) Otherwise it could be hours before a state trooper would come by. Since the vehicle was still drivable, the 911 operator advised him to try to make it to an exit for assistance.

Time was running out, he said. The birds, originally from Australia, can’t tolerate the cold – not to mention the unpleasant prospect of being stranded in a car filled with frantic finches while waiting for help to arrive.

Limping along at 20 mph with a broken tie rod on the front of his vehicle – at 22 mph the car shook so much he was afraid of the rod snapping in two – Stowe and his chirpy companions made it to Exit 161 near Mineral Wells, W.Va., where a tow truck was able to bring the vehicle to the tow truck’s office.

Exhausted, frightened and stranded in an unfamiliar town, Stowe was grateful for an electric heater that kept the birds warm while he calculated his next move – calling his State Farm agent back home.

Stowe’s agent in Athens, Ga., gave him the name of Jerry Parkins, an agent in nearby Parkersburg, W.Va.

“I also called the pet store owner in Cleveland to let her know what happened. She said there was a pet store she owns about 35 miles from where I was stranded. If I could get the birds there, she would handle the rest.”

A few minutes later, not long after 5 p.m., Jerry called Stowe to initiate contact.

“He told me that he was locating a rental for me,” Stowe said. “He’d finally found one at an airport and was on his way to pick it up for me. He also knew where the pet store was and said he would go with me to deliver the birds.”

When Jerry arrived at the towing company, the two men reloaded the birds into the rental car and delivered them to the pet store.

“Jerry helped me unload them as well as helping with the removal of the cages, cleaning them out and getting the birds fresh food and water. He kept insisting that he was not in any hurry. We finished around 10 p.m., and he booked me a hotel room.”

The next morning, Jerry called to let Stowe know that he had worked with the car rental agency to allow him to drive the rental one way, back to his home.

“He took me to the rental company and helped me with the paperwork to transfer it to a one-way rental.”

Stowe said he was so impressed by the above and beyond efforts of this State Farm agent that he wanted to let the Company knows how great Jerry is.

“As I prepared to head back home, Jerry told me that he had come close to missing my call. He had just forwarded the line to State Farm’s 24-hour number, but was looking at the phone as he hit the forwarding button. He saw a line flash and, instead of letting it go to the after-hours number, he answered it. Had he not done so, many of the birds would probably have died in the cold weather.”