A British woman lost her parrot named Chanel and livestreamed the harrowing journey to recover her\, and the riveting clips are going viral

Sandra Hannah searching for, and reunited with, Chanel the African Grey parrot.Sandra Hannah/Facebook

Earlier this week, a riveting story played out on Facebook live: Sandra Hannah, a woman living in Netherton, England, enlisted the help of her community to find her missing African Grey parrot, Chanel. After the parrot escaped, she went live on Facebook on April 19, yelling out the bird's name — "CHANEEEELLLL!" — in what is quickly becoming an iconic cry online.

Luckily, Chanel is safe, and enjoying a nice bout of online fame: not only has Sandra Hannah's video been viewed over 65,000 times on Facebook, the sequence of events was reposted on Twitter by user @jamesc1995.

The road to get there, however, wasn't easy.

In Sandra Hannah's first live stream, she says that Chanel heard a noise and flew away; later, she later told the Daily Mail that the noise was a drill from the neighbors and that, while Chanel was in her cage at the time, the water gate was open and she escaped.

What happened next was the beginning of a neighborhood-wide hunt for Chanel and an anxiety-filled night. "We all cried all night," Sandra Hannah told the Daily Mail. "We were all saying a prayer, please come home Chanel. We were just all devastated."

The next morning, there was a breakthrough. On the morning of April 20, Sandra Hannah posted another video (in which she is notably wearing a Chanel brand sweatshirt) featuring Chanel herself. "I want to say a massive thank you to every single person on Facebook, because if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have found her," she says in the video. She told the Daily Mail that someone who had seen her video on Facebook found Chanel over two miles from her home in a town called Seaforth.

Sandra Hannah updated everyone a day after Chanel had returned with another video, where she dances with Chanel in the kitchen. "For all the d-ckheads that laughed at my video, so what, yeah, I cried over a bird," she said. "But she's not just any bird, she's my little mate."

The story has since spread across the internet, particularly on Twitter after @jamesc1995 posted the recordings of Sandra Hannah and Chanel's journey. Approximately 24 hours after posting the thread, the first video has been viewed over 1 million times. People picked up on the #FINDCHANEL hashtag that @jamesc1995 used in the first post of the thread, quickly rallying around it to make memes about Chanel, who was quickly reaching icon status.

Also notable is the extent to which gay Twitter — primarily those living in Britain — have latched onto the story. Sandra Hannah was even interviewed on Friday morning by Gaydio, an LGBTQ United Kingdom radio station.

Now, Chanel and her Sandra Hannah — who simply goes by "Chanels Ma" on Twitter, which she rejoined after the story went viral — are embracing the fame and the memes. In addition to Chanel's status as a gay icon, people are using Sandra Hannah's audio in remixes and TikToks as well.

Thankfully after all was said and done, Chanel has ended up safe at home and we have a new rallying cry: "CHANEEEELLLL!"

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