Our Story

Located in southeastern Wisconsin, our story begins when our founder Lauren was 11 and received a blue and white budgie named Mickey for her birthday. Lauren set out to learn all she could about birds and at 16 started working at a local pet store. She saw the business of breeding first hand and knew she didn’t agree with it. She befriended an improperly weaned African Grey parrot with missing toes and underdeveloped leg muscles. Lauren worked with him daily and soon convinced the store owner to let her take him home. Grayson sparked Lauren’s passion for bird rescue. Over the years Lauren has volunteered with many local rescues, shadowed at Parrot Garden at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah and traveled to Punta Islita Costa Rica to work with Macaw Recovery Network (formerly The Ara Project) on scarlet and great green macaw conservation and repopulation. Her passion has always been to help the misunderstood “companion” bird, and this is how Far From Home Inc. was born.