GLEBE: Outside Le Petit Tarte Café and Patisserie, most days of the week, is Jethro and his lorikeet, Rosie.
Rosie’s portable home is a plastic “bubble” which provides Rosie with security, food, shelter and exercise.
Passersby and tourists stop to ask Jethro about Rosie and perhaps watch as she takes a bath or plays with a dangling cord while lying on her back, as Jethro takes charge of the game.
“Father” Jethro takes his job seriously, constantly checking Rosie has plenty to eat and drink.
What has established an even tighter bond between them occurred one day a few months ago.
It was a cold and blustery day. Rosie was placed on a branch of a tree to exercise and find suitable food. The tree lay near a pond in Victoria Park next to Sydney University.
A sudden massive gust of wind sent Rosie flying into the sky, landing her into the pond 50 metres away.
Taken by surprise, Jethro started an anxious search for his baby of almost a year.
Upward of half an hour passed before Jethro spotted her.
Struggling to get out of the pond, she had climbed up reeds at water’s edge until she reached a concrete construction nearby.
At this point, Jethro saw her and used a shawl he had to lower to her so she could climb up the shawl to be reunited with him.
