The older I get, the more I appreciate the karma in this life.

My granddaughter, Sloane, and her friend were recently hanging out near the Keolu skate park in Kailua when they rescued a little dog that was lost, scared and dangerously close to busy traffic.

They called the Hawaiian Humane Society for suggestions on what to do and were advised to bring him in, as the society’s Waialae Avenue shelter was likely the first place the owner would look for him.

Sloane and I set out cross island in rush-hour traffic so as not to delay a hoped-for reunion between dog and owner, which soon occurred after pictures were posted online.

Helping a lost animal had special meaning for Sloane, whose own family had seen a pet go missing only a few days earlier.

Their two cockatiels, Squishy and Spot, were outside for a cage cleaning on New Year’s Day when a loud blast of fireworks startled the birds and Squishy got loose.

He was quickly out of view and alerts to everybody the family knew failed to produce any sightings.

They left the squawking Spot outside in the cage during daylight hours in hope her call would lure Squishy back, but he didn’t come.

Sloane went out looking for him nearly every day — and was at the Keolu park keeping an eye out for him the day she and her friend found the lost dog — but there was no sign of Squishy.

By mid-January, the family had pretty much given up hope of finding him and Sloane’s eyes teared up whenever I asked if there was any news.

Then last Saturday, Aaron Carey, a family friend, proprietor of Kailua Music School and manager of Sloane’s rock band, the Random Weirdos, was at the Keolu skate park doing his daily exercises on his BMX bike.

He noticed a squawking gray and white cockatiel flying about and called out Squishy’s name.

At first the bird ignored him, but when Carey sat down for a rest, the cockatiel swooped in and landed on his shoulder. Carey managed to keep him contained long enough to get him home, which was where this lost bird clearly wanted to be.

Squishy looked a bit beaten up and had lost weight during his 16 days in the wild, but otherwise was in pretty good shape; after a squawking reunion with Spot, he remedied the weight loss by camping out at the food dish for the rest of the day.

It’s a constant wonder how seemingly random events in our lives so often turn out to be connected.

And it’s a sweet story that ends with a happy girl, a happy bird, a happy dog and the karma of one good deed leading to another.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.