Bye Bye Birdie.


One of a pair of budgies I’ve had for nearly a decade died earlier this week.

I’ve been lucky to have them for so long ultimately, but it’s still very sad, particularly for the remaining one who's now on their own. They’ve always been best friends - bar the occasional bad mood over breakfast, where the yellow one would bang their plastic ladder until the blue one moved away from the feeder; no-one likes being hungry - so it’s upsetting to think the one we still have might be wondering where their brother or sister is (we’ve never known whether they were boys or girls, though the lack of babies makes it reasonable to assume we didn’t have one of each).

Thankfully, he / she doesn’t seem to be doing too badly. I was a little worried they had a funny stomach yesterday so we took them to the vet - the last thing I wanted was to not help if they were unwell, and the fact the other had died could have been as much a sign of illness as old age - but they couldn’t find any suggestion of bad health, which was a relief. While I’m glad we double-checked, I was still torn about taking them as I didn’t want to contribute to their stress; it was a bit of a toss-up, but we did the right thing.

Today, the surviving sibling looks a little more sprightly. They sang along to the radio this morning and are busy preening while I write this. I’ll make sure I give them plenty of attention. While it’s heartbreaking when a pet dies - big or small - that’s not to say you’d sooner not go through it; having animals around you brightens your life.


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