A blog about my beautiful budgies.
My beautiful little boy Cagney has gone.
How very hard that is to take in.
How could it be? Only five years old. He was flirting just hours ago. What about Bezukhov? How will I tell his best buddy Bezukhov? No Cagney. Anymore. No… it was too much to bear.
I am not ashamed to say I wept uncontrollably. I went into the consulting room where he was, carefully cradled in a soft towel, looking so beautiful, as though he were sleeping. My heart knew what had happened but my brain could not work anything out.
Ms EHV calmly told me that the blood sample she got clearly showed that Cagney had lipaemia (fat in his blood) for some time. As he came around from the anaesthetic his heart failed. He had an underlying heart condition that we knew nothing about. Of course looking back at his symptoms, this offered an explanation. Ms EHV said there was no cure for this condition, although if the blood sample had not been taken he may have lived a few months more, though still, most probably, undiagnosed.
My Cagney has gone.
I left the vets with a heart so heavy I could barely walk. And I had to face Bezukhov & Phineas.
Cagney that last morning
My two beautiful girls had leg rings.
Atilla’s leg ring has recently joined her sister’s on my chain, close to my heart.
Atilla was chick number 9 for that breeder in 2008. Raspy was chick number 10.
Together always.
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….
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…
I was wrong. The lovely heart feathers are still appearing, so they cannot be Raspy’s.
They must be Bezukhov’s.
If lost, please return to Bezukhov
Once again, there is a faint tinge of blue that rules out Atilla. Cagney does not have any black markings. So, handsome Bezuky has the lovey-dovey feathers. 🙂
Recently, I have come across some rather appropriate feathers……
I cannot work out whose they are. There is a slight tinge of blue (does not show on the photo) so I have to rule out Atilla. Cagney does not have any dark markings so I will also rule him out. This leaves Raspy & Bezukhov. My educated guess is that the heart feathers are Raspy’s. 🙂
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Puddings & Toyboys 