On Saturday, I traded in the old red Magna station wagon for a much more recent Magna station wagon.

In the afternoon, I went to my brother-in-law's fiftieth birthday party. There were a lot of Ians there, including, him, me, his father, his brother-in-law and a family friend. It's not like the name is that common! Odd seeing my sister after so long. They have a nice house within view of the sea.

Sunday was a slow day. I worked over the script for Riffin' to Oblivion, Part 3, which I'd looked at recently for the first time in a month. It didn't "flow" as well as I'd thought, so I rewrote some of the narrative captions, edited some word balloons and did a bit of cutting and rearranging (which I'd already planned).

Still, there is a lot of story for an eight page episode. With Part 2 I had the luxury of ten pages (thanks, Aaron!), all focused on the one band. This one is about a covers band and an originals band, and the latter gets very compressed.

Also, I've been stressing myself about having posted a link to a page bearing a strong resemblance to a piece of animation a well-known artist had posted on a Forum as his own, original work. As it turned out, his work was more derived from a widely available .gif, though I think this was in turn based on the Preston Blair animation book I had originally posted a link to.

I think I reacted so strongly because this artist had just reported a poster on another bulletin board for plagiarism (rightly) and then been sanctimonious in his telling off. The really odd outcome is that many people defended this artist on the basis of reputation and friendship, rather than the technical similarities (or not) of seven frames of animation. Pleasingly, a number of people have written privately who can see exactly what I meant.

Whatever, it gave me little satisfaction, particularly as I like his work. The problem for me is that now there will always be a niggling element of doubt when I look at it.

Today Jill went around to see these people again. The same man answered, rejected the large sum of money offered by saying, "I don't have your bird. I don't want your money." and persisting with many of the same lies.

He was confronted when Jill asked him why he had a cage, but said the Police must have lied. Also, when questioned about his former unhelpfulness he said "How do you know, you weren't there!" and "Are you calling the girl an asshole?" (evidently a stepdaughter, but an odd thing to say instead of "liar").

Again he said that the bird was only there for "a couple of hours" and he wasn't there when they found it. He said they didn't manage to get it into a cage (untrue as a neighbour had put the bird into a cage for the girls when they brought it round), denied that it was ever in the house, but contradicted this by saying it flew around the house before it escaped out a door.

The man said he'd kept the flyer right near the door and Jill said that was good in case the bird came back. He replied, "No, because I knew I hadn't seen the last of you!" He said if he saw any more flyers he would call the Police for harassment. Jill suggested he call them now (two visits in two weeks hardly constitutes harassment). When he asked for her name and number she suggested trading them, which he declined.

He did look at the picture of J. with Percy and said, "That's a pretty picture" and "It does look like the bird."

Throughout his anger seemed to come and go, but our impression is that he's a cold person, with no empathy, who would lie whether or not he had anything to hide. He referred to me as "the man" (appears to have forgotten my name) and called Jill "lady," meant as a disparaging term.

At this stage, I'm inclined to believe that they don't still have Percy and may have sold him. There doesn't seem to be much more we can do.

It is heartbreaking to consider that we have now heard of around thirty cockatiels being found and have encountered so many helpful and decent people, and yet Percy haplessly landed among some of the few people with such disgusting values.

Sadly, it's probably time to consider getting another cockatiel, though Percy will be a hard act to follow. Here's a picture of Percy I drew for the latest flyer:

A few amazingly hot days! The weekend got off to a downbeat start, as I heard on Friday night that my best friend's father had died, and also of the death of Jill's sister's dog, Coco, who we looked after when we housesat for them for three months, a few years ago.

We had a small funeral for Coco on Saturday morning. It was an interesting experience for the children and sad all round.

Still no sign of Percy at that house. I'm hoping a neighbour will spot him and call us. Probably time we thought of getting another cockatiel. They're not all equal and finding a good one could be difficult, particularly since we passed up a goodnatured pearl one a few weeks ago, which may have been one of Percy's relations.

I finally finished reading Watership Down to J. last night, but Jill had to come and read the last page, as I felt a bit overcome and unable to continue. There are few books that can have that effect, but the ending of this one is among the most beautifully written endings I have ever read, wholly appropriate and complete. It really is a lovely book and one of the very best!

I just spoke to the Police again, who went to see this guy yesterday morning. He told them the bird flew off again "after a couple of hours," which we patently know to be untrue, as the children were seen with a cockatiel two weeks later. He also showed them an empty cage, which is odd, because he previously had to borrow a cage, from the lady who reported him to us!

I'm 99% sure these people have Percy.

This afternoon I had a call from a lady in Ferntree Gully. About four weeks ago, two girls had come to her place with a handtamed cockatiel they had just found in their swimming pool. As he was sitting on their arms, she lent them a birdcage she had. We put flyers in the letterboxes around this area (which is near to a major park) on Wednesday night.

I went to see this lady and her husband, who directed me to the house where the girl lived. A man and a girl (about ten) came to the wiredoor, but didn't open it. He was an Ed Harris type, bald with blue eyes and looked like he worked out.

I said we had lost a cockatiel and heard they had found one. The man prompted the little girl, "Oh, that bird, it flew off again, didn't it?" She replied, "Yes it flew off," beaming from ear to ear and peeping around the doorframe.

I asked what the bird was like and he said, "Sort of green, with ye..." and she corrected him, "Grey, with a yellow head." He said it was "quite young," the only helpful thing he added.

I asked them how long ago it was found. He said, "Ages ago."

When I asked whether it could talk or whistle, they both said, "No, it doesn't. It can't whistle." I knew for sure this was untrue, as I had already confirmed that this bird both chattered and whistled while they showed it to the lady who rang.

I asked how soon the cockatiel had got away again, and he said, "Straight away."

I asked again how long ago it was found, and said that Christmas was kind of a watershed, so was it before or after? He said, "Before!" She said, "After!"

When I asked him to take my phone number, the girl said "It's on the pamphlet!" which was another revelation (why hadn't they rung?). He wrote "BIRD" and reluctantly wrote down my numbers. Then I told him the reward was $200, at which he paused, then wrote that down as well.

Throughout our conversation this man's demeanour was unfriendly, if not overtly hostile. He never said anything like "I hope you find your bird," which people typically do. Mostly he responded in short grunts, and looked at the ground a lot. The girl looked pleased throughout, looking to him occasionally for approval.

I returned to the couple who had lent the cage. They seemed incensed and went down to ask for the cage back (if the bird was apparently gone). I heard some raised voices and then they returned after a while. Apparently, he said, when they arrived, "So it was you!"

When they returned the man pointed out that their cage was wet (as though it had just been washed).

Next I showed photos to this lady, and she again said that the bird "Definitely chattered and talked," and walked up and down the girls, up their arms and over their heads. She said when she put her hand out (to put him into the cage), the cockatiel stepped onto it.

We went and saw another neighbour, an older lady, who confirmed that the bird whistled, looked at the pictures and confirmed that it was a cockatiel, the same as the one found. She said he was young and a bit fluffy around the neck.

Next my younger daughter and I went to The Police and reported what we could. The policeman said it was unlikely that such cases of disputed property could be satisfactorily resolved, but would call around tomorrow morning, and "try to establish whether there was a cockatiel on the premises." I don't know what else we can do at this stage.

The cockatiel they found may not be Percy. The location and the likely date, as well as the distinctive behaviour of this particular cockatiel make it seem very likely. The lady who first rang me said it was a hot day, and the day she and her husband had cut down a tree. I'll try to check the date with them.

Why didn't the finders ring when they got a flyer in their letterbox?
Why couldn't they agree on the date, and the colour of the bird?
Why did they deny the cockatiel they had found could whistle?
Why were they unsympathetic and unhelpful, not even offering a first name?

The man and the girl were clearly lying, but this doesn't necessarily mean that they still have the cockatiel they found and are keeping it, though this does appear more than likely.

They either have a cockatiel answering Percy's description and want to keep him, or something has happened to him since (either he did escape again from them, or he has met with an accident). I know what I think!

Well, I've definitely missed the deadline for Oztaku but that might not be so bad if the next issue deadline clashes with other commitments. I haven't felt much like drawing.

Still no sign of Percy, and the "Found" cockatiel count is now 20 or 21. I did manage to reunite one young cockatiel with the girl who had bred him, and his relations. Amazingly, it was because someone had rung me after seeing a "Found" sign and one of my "Lost" signs, and I kept details, then happened to discuss losing Percy with a colleague. When I checked details of her daughter's lost bird, and this found one, they matched!

I am nearly finished reading Watership Down to my daughter, who is enjoying it immensely.

"Cerebus," the aardvark character who began in 1977 is about to finish, with issue 300, in March 2004. It really is amazing to think of Cerebus ending. It's been around so long! Certainly, this character was one influence on some of the style and directions I chose with Maelstrom, though I had already created (and published) the earliest adventures of my own short barbarian character.

Like many others, I've waxed and waned as Dave Sim's worst (often misogynist) indulgences have distanced me, but I've always come back, due to the quality of the work itself. I'm going to miss Cerebus.

For the future, I can kind of imagine Dave living an Edward Gorey-like existence, creating exactly what he wants, when he wants. I hope it works that way for him.