A family who spent years saving up for their dream pet are desperately searching for their African grey parrot — just three weeks after finally bringing her home.

Victoria Abberley, who lives with her mother and three sons on Findon Close in Hangleton, says the disappearance of seven-year-old Lola has devastated the household.

No one is more upset than her 25-year-old son Lewis, who had wanted an African grey for as long as anyone can remember.

“He’s always wanted one for years”, Victoria said. “We’d saved up for it. And she was just starting to warm up to Lewis, sitting on his shoulder.”

Lola is a seven-year old African grey parrot (Image: Supplied)

Lola had only been with the family for three weeks when she escaped on Tuesday evening (April 14) at around 7pm, spooked by a visitor at the door and the family’s pet dogs barking at the same time.

What made the moment all the more shocking was that nobody had believed she could fly.

“The people that had her before said she’d never really flown,” Victoria explained. “She’d come off your shoulder and go straight to the floor.

“So when she went out the front door, we thought she’d just come down and land — but she didn’t. She turned left, went up on a roof and down the other side, and I lost her from that point.”

Victoria Abberley has been searching for Lola for the past five days (Image: Supplied)

Lola was briefly spotted the following evening in a neighbour’s enclosed back garden on Beeding Avenue, the next road along.

Victoria made the difficult decision not to retrieve her in the dark, fearing that a panicked bird — unfamiliar with the outside world — might fly further and be injured or fall prey to a fox. By first light the next morning, Lola had moved on.

A possible sighting came yesterday, when a woman on Elm Drive noticed a bird she described as “a bit weird” perched on a fence — not realising until she saw Victoria’s Facebook appeal this morning that it could be Lola.

Victoria has since been down to the area to look and plans to return later with a fresh batch of colour posters.

Lola sitting on Lewis’s shoulder (Image: Supplied)

Victoria said Lola had been settling into her new home. “She loved cuddles — she’d push her head into you,” Victoria recalled. “She was getting really friendly. It had only been three weeks, but she was already starting to feel like ours.”

Victoria is urging anyone in the Hangleton, Hove Park or Elm Drive areas to keep their eyes — and ears — open. Lola wolf-whistles, makes water noises and even does “a bit of singing.”

Live updates as emergency services close road in both directions after incident

Live updates as emergency services close road in both directions after incident

Fire services attend after blaze erupts at residential property

Fire services attend after blaze erupts at residential property

Decision made on plans to remove indoor pool from flat owned by famous actress

Decision made on plans to remove indoor pool from flat owned by famous actress

Victoria’s sons Lewis, Levi, and Leo (Image: Supplied)

“If you hear her, you’ll know,” she said. “It’s quite apparent that it’s not a normal bird.” African greys resemble pigeons at a distance, but Lola has a distinctive red tail.

Victoria draws some hope from a neighbour whose own parrot went missing from Hangleton before turning up in Preston Park after four days, eventually landing on a stranger’s shoulder once hunger set in. It is also breeding season, Victoria notes, which may explain why Lola has not yet headed home.

Anyone who spots Lola is asked to contact Victoria Abberley on Facebook.