It's too quiet

The house isn't the same these days... missing are the happy chirps, chattering and whistles of Pebbles, the little blue and white friend who graced our home and made us laugh for the past five and a half years.

Pebbles feasting on chick weed

The life expectancy of strictly seed-fed budgies is between four and six years -- though Pebbles ate enough chunks of my umbrella plant that I might have expected him to live longer and the girls often picked chick weed from the garden for his enjoyment, his main fare was seed, some of which we recently realized was actually rancid. We replaced it with good seed, but the damage had already been done. For a while we thought he would recuperate, but it wasn't to be. The last weeks of Pebbles' life were bitter sweet -- we were saddened by the fact that he wasn't able to make a comeback, but we were also able to enjoy cuddling him, something he never allowed when he was his usual perky self.

Budgies have been a part of my life for all but eleven years, so it's always strange when a little feathered friend dies, leaving a bigger gap than a person would expect. We won't be getting another budgie while we have a dog -- I always felt a bit sad for Pebbles because he couldn't fly as freely once Shadow joined the family, but the girls would often take him to their rooms and let him socialize there.

Pebbles gave us plenty of laughs, and his life is better documented than any of our other birds, as he arrived after Simple Moodlings was well established. I posted several budgie updates with video in these Moodlings, and they're fun to watch and to remember what a little spaz our bird was. He loved Suzanna best, and every day when she came home, he'd listen for her voice and call out to her. I've gathered the budgie updates here for her to access whenever she feels like remembering, as one final Budgie Update:

#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7

It's not hard to imagine Pebbles somewhere in the great beyond now, singing in chorus with Fritzy, Max, Houdini, Sunny, and Buddy, other cheeky little birds from our past. Such a bright little spirit doesn't end here, of that I'm sure.

The dog and budgie show

Clik clik clik clik clik.

The other night I was doing the dishes, and heard the sound of Shadow-pup walking toward me across the living room hardwood. I turned around to talk to him -- and he wasn't there.

Puzzled, I asked, "Who's got the dog?" and Julia called out from her room, "He's here, sleeping on my bed."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

That's when it dawned on me that Pebbles, the family budgie, has learned to imitate the sound of the dog's toenails on hardwood.

Now I'm waiting to hear the bird bark!

Budgie update #6

My girls were all worried yesterday -- "Mom, something is wrong with Pebbles!"

It was true. When I got up in the morning and uncovered his cage, the shouting began. Budgies have very loud voices when they're upset about something, and Pebbles was definitely using his. He was also bouncing around in his cage like a crazed thing, never settling for a second. Usually he has his quiet, dozy periods in the afternoon, but when I sat on the couch for my own quiet dozy period, I couldn't read my book for all the budgie yelling going on. There were no sweet chattering "birdie birdie birdies," "I love yous" or "kiss, kiss, kisses" to be heard all day.

Suzanna thought he was cold and feeling sick, so we upped the thermostat a notch, and that made us too warm. She thought he was hungry, so we refreshed his birdseed, but he wouldn't eat. He just bounced around the cage, yelling and shouting... so we let him out, and he attacked my umbrella plant, tried to find crumbs on the kitchen table, and just acted strange and skittish, uninterested in any interaction with his favourite human beings. He wouldn't even play his favourite chasing games (usually, us chasing him from place to place with a favourite toy). It seemed he was constantly asking for our attention, but at the same time, didn't want it. But he definitely wanted something. So we gave him his favourites -- celery leaves and bits of carrot. Not interested.

As we ate supper, he yelled and yelled and yelled, ran up and down his perches, turned somersaults between his legs, and just never stopped moving. Frantic.

And then it dawned on me. The night before, Julia had changed around the toys in the cage, replacing one usual shiny silver bell with a small jingle bell. I suggested she change it back.

Like magic, the yelling stopped. Pebbles is happy again. He just wanted his favourite bell back.

Here's a little video of him and his bell from this morning. He can see me making breakfast, so he's dancing around a little. At the end, he whispers a few "sweet nothings." If you ever come visit, he'll whisper some to you, too, as long as you let him keep his favourite bell.