The Leader’s last 24 hours

Atilla had gradually been getting weaker.  The last couple of days she ate less & less & slept more & more.  Cagney would often sit by her.  He would wait for a sign from her for regurgitated seed.  He never let her down.

On that last day, I gave the toyboys a basil misting.  Cagney really went to town & tunneled through the basil getting very wet.  Bezukhov did not seem to be in the mood for a misting so shouted at Cagney from the sidelines.  Atilla just stayed where she was.  She did not have the energy to join in.  I offered her some wet basil leaves & she licked them a little, but then went back to sleep.

Towards the end, I noticed she started getting a bit unsteady when going from perch to perch, so much so that at one point she lost her balance & was half off the perch, with one foot clinging to the side.  That was my cue.  I scooped her up in my hands & held her to my chest.

She was so still but I could feel her heart beating.  I told her we loved her.  I told her she was beautiful.  I thanked her for all she had given us.  The boys were looking on intently.  Cagney looked like he wanted to be with her, so I lifted her up to him on the landing platform.  He gently tapped her beak & preened her head but she could not open her eyes.  Her head was resting on my fingers.  Then suddenly she got some energy from somewhere & started flapping her wings but that was her last movement, as her little heart stopped & she was gone….

With her faithful bodyguards

Guarding the poang chair

The devoted couple

Last photo

There was relief that she was free from illness & (hopefully) able to fly the way she used to, I like to think, with her little sister Raspy.  But there is also great sadness that she is no longer here with us.

When she passed, I sat on her beloved poang chair, just holding her.  In that hour that I sat there, Cagney flew over countless times & landed on my hand or arm & would gently touch Atilla or just look at her.  Perhaps, like me, he could not quite believe that she had gone…