Blue - BirdBoard.Com - Parrot Message Board & Pet Bird Owner Forums

skatermom · #1 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 10:16 PM

In July 2006, my friend and resident bird expert had to go to a wedding, and she needed someone who knew how to hand feed to keep the 2 parakeets she'd just gotten. One of the parakeets was special needs, he was born with a curvature of the spine and wasn't the healthiest bird there was. I told her I'd keep them, as I had a B&G that I fed from 3 weeks and felt comfortable helping her. She warned me that Kickstand, as he came to be known, could pass away at any time. He died on the 3rd day they were with us. His brother never went home.
My son, Joey, fell in love with the tiny blue parakeet we'd taken care of for a week. He called him Blue the week we birdsat him. I asked my friend if he could stay a while longer, and she said to keep him. She knew Joey wanted a bird, and they had a strong bond already.
Joey spent every minute of the remainder of his summer break with Blue. When he was about 6 months old, he started doing a wolf whistle Joey had been working on with him. About a month later, he started saying "hi" non-stop. From there, his vocabulary grew by leaps and bounds over the next 2 years.
Blue was the most relaxed and coolest parakeet I'd ever seen. He let the cat carry him around, he let the bigger birds hang out on his cage without complaining and he loved Joey with all his little parakeet heart. He always had a "hi pretty baby" for anyone who looked his way. He was learning to play poker. He walked around the house and never tried to leave.
Last Thursday, I got home from baseball practice and Blue was laying on his side in the bottom of the cage. We'd just found out that day that our mustache parrot tested positive for PBFD. I ran to Blue and pumped him full of Instant Ounces and kept a heat lamp near him. He seemed to flourish in the next 2 days.
Saturday evening I'd been to the grocery store and had checked on him when I came in. He was bobbing back & forthon the floor of his cage on his heating pad. He tweeted at me so I went about putting groceries away. 20 minutes later, I walked to the cage to give him his Instant Ounces for the night, and he was gone. He laid down and closed his eyes and left this world.
Our family was blessed to have had this little feathered gentleman in our lives. My entire household misses this baby. The cat moans, the big birds search, my son cries and the rest of us are lost.

RIP Blue - you will be missed.