Fofina

Last night, I did the 'pet routine'. Checked on Fofy - our parrolet. And found her lying on the bottom of her cage, on her back...barely moving. She was awake and alert and I carefully lifted her and turned her over...and quickly realized she was in bad shape. She must have injured her foot in a fall backwards off the cage wall and she was not putting any weight on one of her legs. She was not able to move at all except to try to 'drag' herself along the bottom of the cage. I called J. to come up and we gave her a different, lower water dish. She made an effort to eat some millet spray that I had on the bottom of the cage. I checked on her after I'd rinsed her old water dish - and she was basically lying down on the bottom of the cage...eyes closed. Not good. She has been struggling for some time and this seemed to be the sure sign that it was time to let her go.

We phoned our vet this morning and they agreed based on our description of what was happening with her that all they could do for her would be euthanasia. So J. took her this morning.....

She was a great bird - though we all fondly referred to her as a 'brat'. When she let me touch her and move her last night - with no effort to bite me or get away from my hand - I knew she was in seriously bad shape. I don't know how long she had been on her back....but it's possible it was quite awhile. I felt so sorry and so bad for her - that no one had been in the room with her to notice she was in trouble.

Tomorrow we will clean out her cage, box up all the bird paraphernalia and put a post on Freecycle to offer the perfect 'new bird kit' to anyone out there who wants it.

She will be missed - her sweet little 'chirps'....and even her loud, crazy squawking when she was really excited or pissed off about something. She has been with us since the kids were little and long before we moved here - we think at least 15 years and possibly closer to 18.

I worked most of the day and J. went over the hill to visit his brother. Dinner was easy - the annual spaghetti and tri-tip 4-H fund raiser dinner held at our neighborhood school. The boys weren't that interested in going to the 'dinner' so we went and picked up dinner 'to go'. Resisted bidding on this year's quilt - though it is awesome! The first 4-H dinner we attended about 5 years ago was where I won the auction for a really cute purple quilt with bunnies on it. Not really my 'style' - but that's the thing about quilts. They are unique and every one is a treasure - I might go back in an hour or so and see what the bids are up to....but probably not.

Tomorrow is our 22nd wedding anniversary and we will celebrate it quietly. I think I'm convincing myself to make petite vanilla scones - using almond meal and whole wheat flour vs. white flour....something that feels 'special'. But even as I write that, I don't want to go off track..break my streak. They have dairy in them and I'm not really sure they will be even remotely the same made with soy milk. Though I guess I could try it - couldn't hurt. If they are awful, we just won't eat them -

There's a piece of yummy garlic bread sitting on a plate next to me and I am not eating it!