Good Times, Sad Times & New Times

Well the weekend was not your typical weekend around here. There was some fun, lots of sad, and some new joy all rolled up in 3 days.

Friday (the 4th) was started with some house cleaning for our guests that were coming into town. One of John's Best friends, her son and her fiance were going to come stay for a night and hang out with us. But, about 45 minutes before they were due to arrive, tragedy struck our house. Our sweet, kind, quiet and mellow parakeet Toby (one of the 5 birds we have) was the victim of bad circumstances and passed away Friday morning.

It is still really hard to go into detail, but one thing led to another, and he ended up crashing into one of our new windows (without blinds on it yet) and he broke his breastbone, and a few moments later, while laying in my hand, he was gone. He is the first of our babies that we have ever lost, and the only pet that I have ever lost that was not due to old age.

He was only about 2 years old. John and I are still in shock, and we still shed tears for him every night before we go to bed. He was the most mellow bird we had, and we are heartbroken that he is gone. We will be "laying him to rest" this evening, in our rose garden. We wanted to do it earlier, but with company, we wanted to wait for a private time. He is now in a carved wood box and I made him a custom marker for us to remember him when we are out in the garden.

But on the "new" joy front, we are bitter sweetly announcing that we have purchased a new baby parakeet. I would hate for it to seem like we ran out and got a new baby before saying goodbye to our friend Toby, but a few reasons seemed to support the idea.....

But mostly it was the behavior of our 2 remaining parakeets. Gus and Ollie were standing at the entrance of the cage for 2 days waiting for Toby to return. they were not singing, didn't seem to be eating much, and mostly acting forlorn. The 3 of them had quite a thing going. Gus was the happy "time to sing & Play" bird, and caused the other to participate. Ollie was the "time to eat and take a bath and preen" bird, who made sure they all started to eat and clean when they needed it, and Toby was the "mellow" bird. He took lots of naps, and kept them on the calm side. And without him around, it was like they were confused and didn't know what to do, and just sat there waiting for him to come back.

And Ollie and Toby were not super close buddies, and they would bicker from time to time, and steal each others swings, and so on, but it was Ollie who kept the best look out for Toby in the days after his passing. I was surprised to see this, but it was Ollie who wanted to keep the closest to the door and would look around the room and "call" for Toby. It was heartbreaking to see. And so John and I discussed it, and we went to our "local" pet store, and looked over the new baby Keets. (Our local store has SUCH nice birds over pet-smart and pet-co. they are always super quality in there.) And so John and I spent about a hour or so just watching the babies play around in the cage and decided on this little guy.


(Taken with camera phone that he was kinda scared to see)

We were not sure what to name him- and I mentioned calling him "Mozart", and John replied that in that case he would have to call him "Mo" and it stuck. So this is Mo.

And he is joining the ranks of Gus, Ollie, Sprout and Pickles.
He is a sweet little guy. And Unlike some of our other Keets that we have purchased (cough cough Ollie!) he doesn't Bite, and is already learning that hands are not scary things, and how to stand on fingers. We got him Sunday Afternoon, and so tonight will be his first 24 hours, and we hope that he is happy with us.

And the Change in the Parakeets was immediate! As soon as they saw the new guy (who is living in a separate cage for the first 2 weeks or so), they both perked up, started singing, playing with toys, and acting like they used to. And Mo is living on a bookshelf a few feet away, and the birds (all of them) are making a effort to see the new guy on his shelf, and chirp at him and talk back and forth.... and so we are happy that the birds have something new to focus on, and that they are acting much more normal. We will never forget Toby, but we are happy that we have Mo to help us heal and smile again.

(Toby all wet after a Bath in the birdie tub)

We will miss you Toby! You were our "Pudgy Budgie" with the grey feet, black toes, grey tongue and gorgeous long black wings. You were sweet and kind and we loved you so much, and you will be greatly missed!