A SAD GOODBYE

Yesterday I mentioned that Cliff had taken our beautiful, if not friendly Chipper to the vet. The vet doctor called me, and he  described a number of problems, including weight loss, a foot problem, and probable internal problems.  At Chip's age - 13 - he was close to the end of his life expectancy, so rather than have him suffer for another week, or month, or six months, I had the vet put him down.  As I thought about it, Chip may have been older than 13 years. When we bought him at the pet store, we thought he was a parakeet. Apparently, so did the store, for they charged us the parakeet price. In addition, he was in the same cage as the parakeets, but it seemed fairly obvious that he was an older bird.  At the time I thought perhaps a few months older, but perhaps it was more than that -- maybe a year.  That would explain why we never could train him.  When we took him to our vet, we were told that he was a Bourke's parrot. They are about the size of a 'keet, and come from central Australia.

It only took me about 5 minutes to write that previous paragraph, while I stopped to dry my eyes and blow my nose.  It can be difficult when one loses a family member.

Chip liked to get into Pepper’s cage and eat her food.  Mind you, it was identical to the food in his cage, but I suppose he liked to dine out.

He really was a beautiful little guy.  We will miss him.