This is a hard story for me to write. It is still very raw and fresh in my mind, even though it's been almost a month now since it happened. I feel partly responsible. I am and always have been an animal lover, and specifically had a special place in my heart for birds. This all started when I worked at Petco and spent as much time in the small animal and bird section as I could get away with, learning as much as I could about birds. I had a parakeet when I was in high school all the way through college, and she got a tumor while Brian and I were engaged and died while I was working for an avian vet at Texas A&M Vet School. He did an autopsy on her for me. I also had two Quaker Parrots (AKA Monk Parakeets) at different times. One died while still being hand fed (very young) and the other got really possessive of me when I got pregnant with Hannah and started attacking Brian, so I found her a new home. All this is just reminiscing and to explain how much I love birds. It's not the real reason for this post.
Hyacinth, from the beginning was one of the most scared, flighty parakeets I've ever known. She had two weeks in the pet store before we brought her home so that one of the employees could work with her and get her finger trained. I was out of practice with bird training and thought this might help Genna a lot with her first bird. She didn't eat, or even move, for two whole days once she came home with us. Once she got settled we began taking her out of the cage which was always an issue. She never wanted to come out so it took many tries to get her to stay on the finger while it left the cage. When she was out of the cage, she was constantly getting spooked and flying off the finger or shoulder to the ground (clipped wings). A few weeks in and she started biting Genna and the rest of the kids, but never me. I thought maybe the kids were reinforcing the biting by pulling away and letting her "win" in a sense. So I tried to handle her more and see if that would help, but it made it worse. She bonded to me and just bit everyone else all the more. A couple of times she would start chirping if she heard my voice but couldn't see me. The chirping was noticeable since it was so rare to begin with. When I saw it wasn't helping in her training, I stopped handling her altogether except on rare occasions when Genna needed specific help. Since I love birds so, it was a big disappointment to me that I had to back off so much. Things got mildly better, but not as much as we were hoping. I began to think this is just the way it's going to be for her.
Her big cage was in our school room up on a very high small table so the cat couldn't get to her. Plus when no one was around we kept the door shut. She was so quiet that, Trinity, our cat didn't even notice her for over a month. We had a small perch and small cage for the kitchen island and Cinthy stayed there during the days of summer when we were all around and in the main area all day. At night she slept in the big cage in the school room. Trinity normally stays upstairs except when she comes down to eat or drink in the laundry room. If ever she came down we made sure that the bird was put away in her cage.
A couple days before school started I came downstairs to find the two littlest boys already awake and playing in the school room. They had left the door open, but Hyacinth was still covered up from the night. Trinity was crouched on the ground at the foot of her tall table watching the bird cage like a predator. I immediately shooed her out of the room and closed the door. Trinity leaned up against the door and sat by it all morning. I told everyone to be extra alert and careful with the bird today because Trinity appeared to be stalking her suddenly.
That night while the rest of the family was giggling and wrestling in my bedroom, Genevieve came running upstairs, hysterical. I couldn't even understand what she was trying to tell us, but Brian immediately was up and running down the stairs. What we found was a bleeding Hyacinth flopping around in her cage and gasping for each breath. I picked her up with her special cloth that we used with her and wrapped her up a little and held her as she died, telling her over and over how very sorry I was.
Genna told us she got her out of her small cage and as she turned to go towards the school room to put her in her night time cage she flew from her finger to the ground. Immediately, Trinity came out from behind the couch and punched on her. Somehow Genna was able to get her off and she picked her up and put her in the cage while she came to find us. We never heard the commotion because the boys were being very loud, tickling and wrestling. It breaks my heart that Genna had to see that. I feel so utterly responsible for Cinthy's tragic death. I truly thought Trinity was too old and three-legged to do her any harm. I thought we cold keep them separate. I thought we could protect Cinthy. I was so wrong. My sweet Genevieve's dream of having a bird came to a bitter end.
Isaac and Genevieve were the most upset and emotional of the children, but the others were very sensitive to the event. Hannah was so kind to her sister and tried to make her feel better after our makeshift funeral. Genna beautifully decorated a box for her after holding her and saying her goodbyes.
I chose some Bible verses and Brian dug a hole in the backyard. Isaac was too upset to come to the burial that night so he went to sleep crying. Bobby and Judah went to bed as well before we went outside. Afterwards, I came in and started cleaning up all the blood in her cage and I just went ahead and cleaned all her stuff and put everything in the attic, because we obviously cannot have another bird and seeing all her stuff everywhere was painful even for me. I'll admit I cried my eyes out while doing this. I was desperately sad that my children were hurting. I was sad that I had failed to protect this little on in my care.
I didn't sleep well that night, and it is still a very painful memory for us all.
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