The Death of a Companion

I was out for a bit of this evening watching a friend's band practice, and when I got home one of our birds, Woody, was on the bottom of her cage and acting odd. This is not a good sign with birds, but she often exhibited behavior like this when she was younger and in egg laying mode. I was a bit concerned, but not overly, as she has been acting fine lately, with no signs of illness. She hasn't been quite the same since her sister, Sunny, died about a year and a half ago, but since they grew up together, that is understandable. I reached in to her to see if she would come to me, but she hissed at me and wouldn't allow me very close. Again, this is something she would do when she was egging, so I decided it was best to leave her alone.

My wife is out of town, and I told her all this by phone, and she agreed it was probably no big deal. Then she called me back about 15 minutes later to wish me good night and see how Woody was. When I looked in her cage she was lying on her back with her feet in the air. I grabbed her quickly but it was over. She was dead. Her body was still warm, but her heart had stopped and she lay limply in my hand.

My wife was devastated. She had Woody and Sunny when I met her almost 13 years ago. I myself am kind of in shock. It happened so quickly, without any warning.

Our pets are our companions. We take them on as our charges, knowing that time with them may be brief. And the price we pay for loving them is paid at the end, when we lose them.

I don't know what else to say, so I will post some pictures of Woody. She was a strong spirit. I hope she rests in peace.

She loved to sit on the steps up to our loft, spending hours there sometimes. My wife said she was watching TV.

This picture captures some of her fiestiness.

I imagine she was pretending to fly here.

I love this picture of her. She looks like she's giving a speech, or singing opera!

This is the most recent shot I took of her, taken about 5 days ago. We will miss her very much. I am not sure what else to say. I feel very sad.

Gotta put a bird up once in a while

This is still the birdhaus after all.

Since her sister and cage mate Sunny died, Woody (pictured here) has been pretty subdued. formerly a spry flyer, she has preferred to languish in her cage, or just sit in one spot when out, fairly sluggishly. The last few days though, she has seemed a bit more her old self. It's been a year since Sunny's passing, and I don't know if birds observe some sort of grief period, but it's nice to see the feistier bird back at it.

Here she is on the steps above our living room, observing our antics in preparation for Thanksgiving. That's quite a crest ya got there, sweetie!

Sunny's post mortem

We did get word about the nature of the problem which killed our cockatiel, Sunny. The vet sent her to UC Davis for an autopsy, which not only can give a bit of closure for us, but also can help other birds in the future. It was apparently ovarian cancer. It sounds like it had spread throughout her system, affecting her liver, kidneys, and other organs. There is some peace in knowing that it could not affect the other birds, thank god.

It is the final piece of this story, I think. Goodbye, Tough Dove!

Sundown

After a long battle with illness, our cockatiel Sunny finally is at rest. Yesterday, my wife went over to the vet hospital where Sunny had been for about a week, and spent a couple of hours with her saying goodbye. Sunny had lost a lot of weight, and was virtually skin and bones, even though she was eating. My wife said she was able to be with her and come to some peace with the decision to euthanize her. Sunny could barely hold her head up, and reacted only slightly to most stimuli (though she did seem to know my wife was there.) The vet suspected organ failure of some sort, and she has been sent to UC Davis for a thorough autopsy.

It's a sad thing, but it is one of the costs of being a pet owner. And the love we experienced both for and from these "familiars" far outweighs any cost.

A friend of ours who knew the situation told my wife that she had dreamed of Sunny, before knowing that she had been put to sleep, flying far up in the sky. I hold that thought in my heart. It seems that the reprieve of last week was enough to give us the chance to let go of her, and to give my wife the chance to be there and say goodbye. These things are no small blessings.

Godspeed Sunny Lou. Fly high and long!

Reprieve Time

Okay, there is no end to the surprises life can throw our way. We had begun greiving for Sunny after being told by the vet that she needed to be euthanized, and giving the go ahead. They were waiting for a call from the lab for an appropriate method (a call which never came), and Sunny began yet another rally. We got the call this morning that the vet said that she saw such a strong sprit in the bird that she couldn't do it.

So she is STILL with us. We are waiting to see what the other vet says Monday, but this is an amazing turn of events. To anyone who may read these words: keep Sunny in your hearts and prayers, and I will keep your posted.

You can't keep a good bird down!!!

It's a bit empty here at the birdhaus . . . .

Our granddaughter feeding Sunny

It's feeling a little empty here at the birdhaus.

My granddaughter and her Mommy moved away a couple of weeks back, as I had written they were going to, and I have been too blown away by it to write about it. I don't know how good it is to put all the emotions of one's life up on the internet for the whole world to see anyway. We are adjusting, but it is a slow and sad process. We miss them very much. There's nothing that could possibly fill the hole that their leaving has made in our lives. The love of our granddaughter in particular was an immense blessing to us. We will still see them (they are now 5 hours away), but the happy frequency of a couple of days a week of caring for her is now a thing of the past. For lack of a better term, I am broken hearted.

Then one of our birds, Sunny, took ill a couple of weeks ago. It was obvious something was very wrong, as her normally large appetite dwindled and she spend most of her time hunched over on the floor of the cage. We live in an area where bird veterinarians are rare, but we took her to the one vet we have always used, and she put Sunny on a round of antibiotics, which seemed to help at first. Then she got worse, and my wife found a vet in the next largest town over from us who had a lot of experience with birds, and we took her there to see if anything could be done.

Again, at first it seemed she was responding to the treatment, and they seemed to find that the problem had something to do with her liver. Then, today, things took a really bad turn, and we had to make a decision about what to do. There seemed to be little alternative to her suffering except to do what we were loathe to consider all along. We told them to put her to sleep.

I feel very overwhelmed. Life seems to have a higher opinion of our abilities to handle sadness than is warranted.

Sunny was a sweet and happy bird, whose name really suited her. She will be very missed here at the birdhaus. I hold her in my heart. May she rest in peace.

One/two punch

Here's a combination of two of my favorite types of posts: my grand daughter and my birds. Here is Kira feeding some of her muffin to Sunny. She is so delighted that the birds will let her feed them, although the birds are a bit leery of getting too close to her. Food will overcome most fears, though.