Zoebird

When I got home from work yesterday Jim said he had some bad news - my sweet little Zoe had died. She was such a dear little bird. I will miss her terribly.

I had known Zoe since she was an egg.

Jessica had been left a couple of cockatiel's when a room mate moved out many years ago. After she inherited the birds they started mating. They produced a number of eggs in the first clutch but only two hatched - Uno the first born and Zoe.

Eric was living with Jessica at the time and decided to move back home for a short time and brought Zoe with him (he had named her Zoltan) Since Zoltan was really a "she" I called her Zoe. She came to live with us at the age of about 6 months in the spring of 2000. She lived in Eric's room in a little tiny cage and every morning I would let her out of the cage and she would spend the day out and about in the room. She had a little wicker lamp she would sit on - she would wander around the bookshelf and destroy all kinds of paper products. We built a little perch for in the room for her. I didn't have a clue about birds and what they needed or how to care for them. But Eric wasn't much better and when he moved out and Zoe stayed on living with us.

Then I think it was the spring of 2001 - I found Zoe one morning sitting at the bottom of her cage - with a very small little egg and she was not able to fly - she was quite sick. I found there was a bird doctor in our city - it seems that most Vet's don't care for birds. I took her off to the bird doctor and found out Zoe was "eggbound" she was very sick and she spent about a week at the bird hospital. And the vet said to me the first day "You will be coming to visit her daily" So I drove the 45 minutes there and back to see Zoe every day. She would just perk right up and chirp when I walked in to see her - and I would take her out of her little hospital cage and sit in a special little room and hold her. Zoe passed the egg that had been stuck and came home - with a whole new set of instructions on the care and feeding of cockatiels from the Vet. And a bill of $1200.00.

She had to have a big cage and spend the day in the cage unless she was supervised when out and about - it was not a good idea to let her just wander around unattended as she could get into dangerous things. She had a whole new diet -- I cooked her up "gruel" she got fresh broccoli, carrots, corn (she really liked corn) She got pellets and proper bird seed and proper toys to chew instead of books -LOL. And she had a special cage at night for sleeping and a big cage for daytime -to prevent any more egg laying.

In 2003 or so her sister Uno came to live with us as well. The two of them got along quite well. Uno was never that healthy and had some liver problems and the Vet felt that Uno would not live that long. In 2005 Uno died - she was a really sweet little bird and I think she had a good life here with Zoe. After Uno died Zoe became quite listless and lost a bit of weight. We took her back to the Vet and found that Zoe also had some congenital issues. She had a small mass in her stomach and her keel bone was malformed. But she seemed to get better.

We decided to get another bird for company for her as there was a bird that had been found and not claimed at a local SPCA. So Abby came to live with us. Zoe really perked up and started to gain weight with Abby living with her. The vet had told us the last visit that Zoe probably would not have a long life due to the health issues that she had - and they were not really something that could be fixed. The past year I could see her health deteriorate a bit - she had lost a bit of weight - but she was eating and still enjoying her gruel. She was always happy to come out of the cage - she loved to sit on my head. I don't think she liked Abby as much as she liked Uno and she would quite often sit on the perch that was just above where Abby sat on the ladder - just to upset Abby and get her squawking -LOL.

I laid her on a small piece of angel fabric and wrapped her up in a little piece of sky fabric and we buried her in the back yard today under the little stone Chinese lantern. I will miss her. Gosh it is funny how you can get so broken up over a little bird. She was such a sweet little bird. Good bye Zoe.