"Baby," R.I.P.

"Baby," my mom's parakeet (the above video was from my cell phone a year ago) was just an ordinary green-colored parakeet, but he gave her many hours of entertainment during her final years.

When she died in January, my cousin Ashley took him into their home in Wildomar, California. He seemed to thrive and Ashley's husband Tony worked with him the most.

Last night, Baby seemed perfectly fine when they did their usual routine. They covered his cage when they went to bed. Sometime during the night, Baby died unexpectedly. He was only about 2-3 years old.

This would have devastated my mom. She seemed to have bad luck with birds for the past few years. Parrots, cockatiels, canaries and, now, a parakeet met an early death. Birds are funny. Quite often, they hide the fact that they are even ill. Many times, it isn't apparent that the bird is sick until just before the end. It may be that this is an ancient defense mechanism so that other birds won't "finish him off" in the wild.

We had a parakeet that we got in the early 1960s and it lived until 1974. They don't seem to make them like they used to.

Maybe he's now with my mom.

What a year. I am really getting tired of receiving bad news.