I wasn’t sure about posting this, I didn’t want it to seem like suddenly these posts were all about bad things. Then, I saw someone I hadn’t seen in a few weeks, who had read about my one bird passing and offered her condolences, just as I had to share some new additional bad news. When I told her, she expressed sympathy and said something about not having seen the post yet. Which made me realize, it would be unfair to you the readers to not post this since I had already shared with you the passing of one of my birds.
As you recall, early March saw the death of my bird Coco. I mentioned that I still had the oldest bird, Papaya, and that he might out live us all. Turns out that was not to be the case.
He had injured himself, or so I thought, and a few days after Coco passed I took him to the Vet to make sure there wasn’t an infection or something. On the way over he was as vocal as he has always been on a car ride. He didn’t like my driving, I think, but we got there. And then we saw the Vet. Turns out his injury was a tumor. The Vet said there were abnormal blood cells in the sample he took but that he was too skinny to survive the anesthesia to operate to remove the tumor. If he put on weight, it might be a possibility. So home we headed. On the way home, he was a completely different bird. It seemed all the fight had left him. He was quiet and subdued and didn’t have anything to say about how he had had to endure people handling him.
As much as his human flock was there for him, I was not there the full 24/7 for him for the last 20 years like Coco was. I don’t know if there were ever more than a few hours when they were separated by anything more substantial than a couple of rooms in my home. And even then, not for long. He’d call for her until you took him to where he could see her, or you brought her back. He fussed at her and chased her out of his cage if she tried to visit, and there was a time when he was really mad at her for quite a while. I wish I knew what that was about. And yet, he always seemed to be keeping an eye on her and keeping her company.
I hadn’t really thought about it that much until someone said something about the old married couple where when one dies the other is not far behind. I suspect that was the case. As much as I tried to give him some extra attention and make sure to interact with him, he never seemed to come back to being himself. He made it 20 days without his companion of 20 years before he decided to join her.
So my home is now birdless. It’s incredibly strange after 30 years to come home and not be greeted by the chirps and squawks that seemed to be saying ‘Oh thank heavens you’re home’, ‘I’m so glad you’re home’ followed by ‘Where have you been? I’ve been waiting to go to bed.’ That part will take time to get used to, the silence.
As sad as I am about the passing of my feathered friends, there are exciting adventures on the horizon and I good things to come and I have great memories of them and a few scars.
I won’t be adopting any new animal companions for a while. It wouldn’t be fair to them with the trip coming up, so I won’t even consider it until after I get back.
