Post by criswell on Dec 3, 2021 14:27:39 GMT
It's been hard for me to write a memorial for Randolph Carter, not because I don't know what to say, but because it's the last thing I get to do for my boy and it will feel like he's really gone now I've written it.
Randolph Carter came to live with us on 11th March 2018, to be Dexter’s new companion. He'd had his baby moult but didn’t have his iris rings yet so I guess he was 4 or 5 months old. He wasn’t fully grown and his feet looked too big for his body. He was a big lad though and already bigger than Dexter. I saw him advertised on Gumtree and I named him before we even met him. He was being rehomed because his owner worked night shifts and he was keeping her awake during the day. When we collected him his owner said he was a strange bird, not like any she’d had before. He spent most of his time sitting still and quiet or he squawked his head off. She had tried to tame him and he would let her stroke him. I loved him right away. He was very calm on the drive home, preening and eating. He was less sure of himself once he got here though. He hardly made a sound for his first few days of quarantine in the guest bedroom but soon he was waking us up in the morning and became known as the budgie alarm clock.
Randolph Carter was very timid during his quarantine and was scared of everything new in his cage and spent his days with his face pressed up against his mirror. I spent as much time as I could with him, chatting and singing and eventually got him to sing along with me. He also had quite long and loud squawking and shouting sessions every day, regardless of whether I was in the room with him or not, so I could see why his previous owner had been unable to sleep. Taming was difficult but we got as far as him putting one foot on my hand to get millet, but he never did master stepping up.
We moved Randolph Carter downstairs to meet Dexter on my birthday and he was so excited and instantly braver, no longer scared of the new perch I’d put in his cage – he jumped straight on so he could be closer to Dexter’s cage. Dexter was initially startled by his flapping about but very quickly went to sit on his cage to talk to him. They became friends over the next few days and Dexter went in and out of Randolph Carter’s cage. RC didn’t get any further than the door. After a week in the same room Dexter herded Randolph Carter out of his cage and after a panicky flight around the room he landed on Dexter’s cage and found his way inside and stayed there. Dexter didn't mind sharing.
Randolph Carter was never very keen on flying but he liked to play on top of the cage, the climbing frame and the table. Dexter even let him play with Miss Peacock. RC was a mischievous boy and generally got his way because he was quite a bit bigger than Dexter. He especially like to steal Dexter’s swing. Every night he would wait until Dexter had chosen a swing, and then he would jump on to it, not caring if Dexter was still sitting there or not. Occasionally Dexter would stand his ground and they’d have a bit of a squabble but Randolph Carter usually won in the end. It didn’t matter which swing Dexter chose, RC still wanted it.
[/urlRandolph Carter loved his food. He was always been first to a freshly filled seed pot and went straight to the greens as soon as I put them in the cage, and he was a tubby fellow. He also a very noisy boy. He loved to sing and would come and sit on the climbing frame and sing with me. If Dexter had been out of the cage for too long without him, either flying about or playing with his peacock, RC made a funny call that sounded more like a guinea pig than a budgie. He also used to get quite shouty if he didn't like what was on the TV.
Dexter still liked to spend lots of time with his peacock and Randolph Carter seemed a bit left out so when we heard of another budgie that needed a home, Dean Stockwell came to stay. Randolph Carter liked him straight away and they liked to take naps together. Dexter didn’t want to miss out and he started spending more time with Randolph Carter and less time with his peacock and Randolph Carter loved that too. Randolph Carter was the bridge between the other too. They both liked to spend time with RC but didn't spent much time with each other.
We almost lost Randolph Carter in January 2020. He had an enlarged liver and the vet suspected a chlamydia infection. RC hated being caught for his medicine but he pulled through and was soon back to his happy self. I never stopped worrying about him though and tried not to miss any signs of him being unwell again.
We had some lovely moments in the weeks before he left us. One afternoon I looked up to see what they were doing and Dexter playing with the toys on the cage floor. Randolph Carter never trusted the cage floor and he was hopping from one low perch to another with his head on one side watching everything Dexter did but he didn’t dare jump down to play with him although it looked like he really wanted to. Another day I heard him chattering and looked up and he was talking in his sleep. That was something that he often did and he’d look so cute with his head under his wing, bouncing up and down a little bit as he chattered in his sleep as I sang to him. When I stopped singing he stop chattering and when I sang to him again he started chattering again. It was so sweet.
I’m glad Randolph Carter’s last days with us weren’t stressful for him. The only sign that something was wrong was that he was sleeping more than usual. He still enjoyed his food and was first to the greens each morning and we had lots of lovely chats with him sitting on the cage door watching me. And even on his last night with us he stole Dexter’s swing from him. I wish that we could have saved him again. I really wasn’t ready to say goodbye. He was only 4 and I thought we’d have many more years together. I miss my boy so much. I say hello to him every morning when I'm outside feeding the birds.
