In Memoriam: Eddie the Bird

Two weeks ago today we said good-bye to our last non-four-legged pal, Eddie.  :(  We brought Eddie home from Petco back in 2006 (wow!) which means we had him for 8 years, which we have been told is a long time in pet store parakeet life expectancy.

Eddie was the last surviving member of our little bunch of parakeets.  Harry passed away in 2010 and Leroy in 2012.  We think Eddie was lonely without his bird siblings, but we were not really looking to take on more pets (remembering that at one point we've had three fish, three birds, one turtle, and a dog), so he led a mostly solitary life.

We tried to make his cage as fun and comfortable as possible for him over the years - adding toys and treats, but he didn't seem to play with them much.  On days when Claudius was at daycare, we would take Eddie out of his cage and let him fly around.

On his last day, we suddenly noticed that he was having a lot of trouble walking.  His feet did not seem to be working - he couldn't grip onto the large bars in his cage.  When we took him out of his cage, his feet were folded underneath him, and he was walking on his "ankles".  He struggled a lot and we were freaking out.

We moved him to a smaller cage and removed the bars and tried to flatten his feet out and put the joints so they were facing the right way.  Then we looked on the internet for what the causes could be - they were not pretty.  Possible tumor, possible arthritis.  We looked up a bunch of treatments then rushed out to PetSmart to get new perches, better food, some vitamin drops, and some other supplies.

The poor guy could still barely walk - just hanging onto his cage with his beak.  :(

We got him set up in his new cage but he still struggled.  We kept our eye on him all afternoon, trying to help him where we could.  Marek went out to pick up Claudius from daycare and I was making dinner when I heard a big fluttering over in the cage.  I ran over and picked up Eddie and put him on a flat blanket and tried to comfort him.  I saw him flap his wing one more time and then he was still.  I actually kind of freaked out and kept telling him to wake up and shaking him a little, but he did not.  He was dead.  :(

It was very, very sad but he was suffering a lot that day so it was good to know that he was no longer in pain.  We waited until after dinner and then we went to a field nearby our house and buried him.  It was an extremely upsetting day but we are glad to know that Eddie has been reunited with his other bird siblings up in the big birdhouse in the sky.

So long to our little pal!  We love you and thank you for bringing cheer into our lives. :)

Eddie, taking a nap on his last day