Post by clt80 on Jan 5, 2019 13:28:13 GMT
Shirley....where do I start?
You were hatched sometime in 2016 and I saw your advert as being unwanted along with John and another budgie in August that same year. I messaged and on 24 August 2016 I drove to you with a cage and brought all three of you home with me. It was clear you and John were bonded, you didn't have names but you looked like a Shirley to me.
Quarantine flew by and off out into the outside world you to meet your new friends. You stamped your authority and ruffled a few feathers. Never one to back down you ended up coming inside for time out late summer in 2017, along with John. Next thing you laid an egg.......very clever Shirley, I am sure you had it all planned and was one step ahead of me all the time
Within a month you and John had 4 beautiful chicks and my what a thorough job you did of raising them. You must of been exhausted, infact i knew you was and John and I tried to help where we could, but the bulk of the task remained with you. I was so very proud of you, my heart melted everytime I check on you all and you'd have 4 chicks under your wings trying to protect and keep them warm.
As the chicks grew and needed you less, you came out the nestbox more and more. Who can forget the time I was cleaning your cage and you were spreading your wings with John flying around the kitchen, on the tv, on the curtain, on the fridge, by the sink, and then down the back of the extractor fan!!!! A house viewing got cancelled and help was called to start dismantling it when suddenly you had had enough playing and flew out of your own accord. I am sure I heard you laugh as you flew out. Little minx I thought.
By now you had decided it would be a good idea to start mating again and lay another round - fearing for your health I put a spanner in the works by putting John back in the aviary. I know what a determined little soul you was Shirley, but I had your best interests at heart.
Shortly afterwards you joined John outside and normality for you resumed. Your babies came with you some months later when it was safe and warm enough to do so. I have to admit Shirley, you weren't so bothered with them - your true love was John and never did you deviate from him.
What always made you stand out from the others to look at was your chest feathers; you had one, directly under your beak in the centre of your chest that was always parted. Like you'd just preened there and disturbed the feathers. But you never had and it was just the way the feather always grew. It always made me smile, you just had to be different. You would sometimes pull a facial expression I had never seen on a budgie before, Quentin has inherited it and does the same - he is your double to look at. You would pull you head back and look downwards like you had a double chin, hard to explain, but it use to make me laugh.
I guess you were about three now and that is still a young age despite everything that you had done with your life so far. You developed a lump, I could see the blackness through the stretched skin, I knew what it was. I hoped it would grow slowly for your sake and John's, and I thought it best for you to remain outside living happily as you did. A few weeks later you started to show signs and you needed help so you came inside with John. You were happy. John was happy. He looked after you, fed you, sang to you. But the lump was agressive, it was growing so quickly.
NYE came, and as I sit here now shaking my head as I type I just can't fathom out how you had the sheer strength to carry on. But you did. It was that sheer determination you have always had Shirley. You was not ready. You would go to Rainbow Bridge on your own terms. I took you with Francine to see the lovely avian vet, she held you, confirmed it was what we thought and asked if it would be kinder for you to be pts. I thought hard. But the thing was Shirley, I had thought the same that morning and when I came in to see you and clean you and your cage you had been preening John's head on the big swing. To me, I saw that as you telling me 'not yet'. I listened. I hope I got it right.
The following morning you were still high up in your cage on the big swing with John. Regardless of all the perches and stands I had placed lower down you wanted to be with John on your swing and that was that. The last time I saw you was the early hours of the 3rd around 4am when I came in to check on you. You were asleep on your swing. A few hours later you had passed.
Shirley - you know how much John loved you, well I loved you just as much. You were a special bird, and your legacy lives on in the beautiful babies who are now enjoying life outside in their own little world. Everytime I look at them I will remember you and this great gift you have left me. John is doing okay, he has made friends with Frank and seems happy. I will look after him and your babies do not worry. Fly high my darling at Rainbow bridge, I am missing you and love you xxx