My Shame
Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 10:28 pm
A terrible string of events happened this weekend, and it's my fault.
I purchased a budgie to give to a friend for his birthday (I made sure he wanted and was ready for one first). Well, he lived out of town and wouldn't be able to pick it up for a week. I took the week to tame the budgie, who I had named Sky Captain.
Sky Captain was special. He was fully flighted and was the most active, inquisitve, and feerless budgie I saw, so I chose him for my friend. By day one he was eating out of my hand, by day three he had no issues about being put back in the cage, and by day six he was flying to me and learning to sit on my shoulder.
The first mistake I made was doing this in view of my irn, Ace. Quickly Ace got jealous of Sky Captain. Then, one day I came up to my room from the kitchen to find out in horror that Ace had jumped off his cage, crossed all the way into my office, scaled what I thought was an unclimable shelf, opened Sky Captain's cage and bit his foot.
Captain's claw didn't look good, and I stopped the bleeding. Though he didn't want to put pressure on that foot, he would still use it to climb or grab things. I called the animal ERs, and the closest one was an hour away through a storm. I decided to wait till the morning to go to the usual bird vet, and then found out he was on vacation for the weekend.
Well my friend came to get him. I actually had a group of friends over (3 of us contributed to the gift for the 4th friend) and we were checking on Captain. We left for food and when we came home, I found out again in horror that not only can Ace open his own door, one of us had left my office door open. Sky Captain was in such bad shape that I had to get someone else to put him down, as I could not do it myself.
Once is an accident, twice is just unexscusable. My friend was not angry with me, as none of us can remember who went out of the office last and left the door open. I still feel like crap though. I ordered a new cage for Ace, along with climbing hooks to latch his door shut. The worst is that during all of this Ace said his first words - thank you.
I miss Sky Captain. I was so proud of him trusting me so quickly, and then I betrayed that turst. Ace leaves my roommate's budgie alone (not that we ever give them a chance to meet). He seemed to hate Captain because he took attention away from him and could fly. I don't know what to do, because I know at some point in Ace's lifespan I will want to have another bird. How do breeders deal with this, when either their actions or a bird they own causes the death of another?
I purchased a budgie to give to a friend for his birthday (I made sure he wanted and was ready for one first). Well, he lived out of town and wouldn't be able to pick it up for a week. I took the week to tame the budgie, who I had named Sky Captain.
Sky Captain was special. He was fully flighted and was the most active, inquisitve, and feerless budgie I saw, so I chose him for my friend. By day one he was eating out of my hand, by day three he had no issues about being put back in the cage, and by day six he was flying to me and learning to sit on my shoulder.
The first mistake I made was doing this in view of my irn, Ace. Quickly Ace got jealous of Sky Captain. Then, one day I came up to my room from the kitchen to find out in horror that Ace had jumped off his cage, crossed all the way into my office, scaled what I thought was an unclimable shelf, opened Sky Captain's cage and bit his foot.
Captain's claw didn't look good, and I stopped the bleeding. Though he didn't want to put pressure on that foot, he would still use it to climb or grab things. I called the animal ERs, and the closest one was an hour away through a storm. I decided to wait till the morning to go to the usual bird vet, and then found out he was on vacation for the weekend.
Well my friend came to get him. I actually had a group of friends over (3 of us contributed to the gift for the 4th friend) and we were checking on Captain. We left for food and when we came home, I found out again in horror that not only can Ace open his own door, one of us had left my office door open. Sky Captain was in such bad shape that I had to get someone else to put him down, as I could not do it myself.
Once is an accident, twice is just unexscusable. My friend was not angry with me, as none of us can remember who went out of the office last and left the door open. I still feel like crap though. I ordered a new cage for Ace, along with climbing hooks to latch his door shut. The worst is that during all of this Ace said his first words - thank you.
I miss Sky Captain. I was so proud of him trusting me so quickly, and then I betrayed that turst. Ace leaves my roommate's budgie alone (not that we ever give them a chance to meet). He seemed to hate Captain because he took attention away from him and could fly. I don't know what to do, because I know at some point in Ace's lifespan I will want to have another bird. How do breeders deal with this, when either their actions or a bird they own causes the death of another?