| In Memory of Mooie |
| Story and photo by Sue |
| We all probably have our personal reasons for trying to educate ourselves about bird care. My reason was a little peach faced lovebird named Mooie. Kind of a funny name, I know, but my 8 year old son named him. The name started off as Mikey, then evolved, as if it had developed a life of its own. Mikey became Mikey-moo, and ultimately, Mooie. Rather a unique name, but one that suited its owner very well. A friend of a friend had a pair of lovebirds. The lovebird pair had babies and the babies needed homes. I�d had parakeets before, about 3 different ones, all through my twenties before my son was born - and birds were a great choice for a pet since I was very allergic to cats and dogs. Being recently divorced, I thought a pet would be a cheerful addition to our household. So my son, Daniel, and I drove to see the baby lovebirds and we were both charmed by the little green birds that so willingly sat on our fingers and gazed at us so trustingly. Of course we had to have one! We hurried off to Walmart to buy a cheap little cage and some seed and rushed back to claim our new little friend. I had read somewhere that lovebirds should also eat fruits and vegetables, so I offered them to Mooie - but he apparently had not read that article and always declined to try them. After a while, I gave up, and just figured that if Mooie preferred to eat seed, well ok, birds eat seeds and that was fine. Daniel was a bit timid with Mooie at first � he always wore hooded sweatshirts at that time and he�d pull the sleeves over his hands and put the hood over his head � then, with his fingers and ears safely protected, he�d hold Mooie and they would watch TV together after school. Mooie was sweet, bold, fearless, and very loving. He would cuddle up in a hand and go to sleep and we would look at him and marvel at how cute he was. Mooie was exactly what we both needed to take our minds off ourselves and our problems. Mooie�s cage was really too small, but I didn�t realize that at the time. However, when Daniel came home from school, Mooie got to come right out - he was Daniel�s little buddy and companion when Daniel was home alone. Whenever Daniel had friends over, Mooie fearlessly flew to each boy and checked them all out, always impressing them greatly with his friendliness. Mooie was definitely a people person, I mean, bird� Well, life rushed on, as life does, and Mooie became such a part of our family that Daniel and I considered him like a little brother. In the mornings, when Daniel was hard to wake up for school, I would take Mooie to Daniel�s bedroom and toss him towards the lump in the bed. With irresistable charm, Mooie would fly to Daniel and sit right by his cheek, chirping loudly and cheerfully. Daniel would open one eye to look at Mooie and then he would cuddle the little green bird until it was impossible to pretend to be asleep any longer. Mooie was a great help to a busy mom trying to get to work on time! When Mooie was seven years old, I noticed he was acting strangely at times, insisting on eating dirt from my potted plants and just not being his usual lovable self. Eventually I decided to take him to a vet and looked through the Yellow Pages, trying to find one that advertised he worked with birds. We made an appointment and took Mooie in early one morning before work and school. The vet checked Mooie over and accusingly informed us that Mooie was starving to death from malnutrition. I was horrified and did not want to believe this terrible news. We left with some sort of medicine, I don�t know what it was, and set up a hospital cage as the doctor had instructed. Another day went by and the treatment did not seem to be bringing about any improvement. When I came home from work, Mooie was weakly clinging to the bars of the cage. I took him out and cuddled him for a while, which seemed to comfort him. Then I put him back in his cage and started dinner. When I checked on him again, he was lying on the floor of the cage, still breathing, but barely so. I held him and cried until, just a few minutes later, he died in my hands. About thirty minutes later, Daniel came home from playing with his friends. He could see from my face that something was terribly wrong. I told him, �Mooie died,� and we cried together over our little dead friend�s feathery green body. We buried Mooie in the back yard in a little wooden box, lined with soft material, filled with some of Mooie�s favorite toys, and we each wrote a tearful farewell note and tucked it inside. We spent that evening collecting all the photos we had of Mooie over the years and together we made a photo album, grieving and remembering as we worked. I felt terribly guilty about Mooie�s death, so guilty that I couldn�t even talk about it, wondering if the vet knew what he was talking about and if his diagnosis of malnutrition was true. Losing a beloved pet is always hard, but the guilt I felt over Mooie�s death made it even worse. Secretly, I blamed myself and could not even think about getting another bird. In the meantime, a couple of years passed, Daniel got older, his grandma got him a home computer, and I still felt terribly guilty whenever I thought about Mooie�s death. When I learned to use the �world wide web�, I compulsively searched the internet for information about birds and bird care. I spent hours and hours looking at websites, reading everything I could find, and eventually, armed with my new knowledge, I decided I wanted another bird. But not another lovebird � Mooie�s memory was still too much alive to be replaced by another lovebird. I bought a cute little gloster canary with a Beatle-like fringe of feathers hanging over his bright eyes and named him Peeper. I bought him the largest canary cage I could find in the pet store, bought Prime vitamins for him, fed him greens, fruits, veggies, and an occasional bit of hardboiled egg. About six months later, I bought a cockatiel as well, wanting a bird I could hold and play with. Peaches was quite a character and very devoted to me. But bird fever had taken hold, and I decided I wanted to breed birds, canaries specifically. To this end, I continued my internet research, reading up on cockatiels, canaries, nutrition, breeding, and all kinds of exotic and fascinating birds. Along the way, I acquired two more beloved friends, my jen/sun conure, Calypso, and my red lored Amazon, Echo. Later, a six year old lovebird came along, needing a new home, and so Lovey joined our flock, fitting in so quickly and naturally that I couldn�t help but wonder if Lovey was Mooie reincarnated. Daniel is grown up now and making his own way in the world, but my empty nest didn�t stay empty. It�s filled with my feathered friends, my birdie children, my loving little companions, and every day, for them, I do my best to put into practice the knowledge I�ve acquired about proper bird care - in memory of Mooie. |
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