Dealing with the Death of a Family Pet
Today is, unfortunately, one of those days that provides some of the harsh lessons of life. Flora, the pet bird of my youngest daughter, died today. Flora was my daughter's first pet.We had gotten Flora from a local person who raised birds. Things went well with Flora for some time, but then seemingly out of the blue, she lost some feathers on her head and on her neck and back. Living in a university town that also has a vet school, we were able to find a specialist (cha-ching) to look at Flora. We worked on her socialization and a few other things, and she started looking better. A few feathers were even starting to return. Suddenly today, she was spitting up her food and looking really sick. She was rushed to a small animal hospital (cha-ching) where she was given a steroid and put in a , believe it or not, oxygen cage. She didn't last very long.
My youngest has been having a difficult year in middle school. This certainly won't help. My wife, who was always petrified of birds, loved Flora and even let her sit on her shoulder and her head -- which looked quite funny. She has also taken this very hard.
So tonight, maybe we'll just stay home instead of going out as planned. It looks like at least a couple of people need a little extra TLC.
posted by lightning36 at 5:24 PM
5 Comments:
Sorry to hear this. Even though it's "just" a bird, he's still a family member.
I remember when my pet dog Riley died. He was the first dog our family had and we grew up with him.
Not only was he compassionate, friendly and gentle, he was the backbone of our family.
My father became sick when I was very young and Riley was always there for him. When dad had to spend days, weeks, months in bed, Riley would be snuggled up beside him.
It was difficult for my sister and I as young kids to deal with our father, and so we ended up simply ignoring him a lot of the time because we didn't know what to say or do. Riley was dad's friend, right until the very end.
A pet is never easily forgotten.
Yeah, some extra hugs for the girls, are definitely in order.
It's never just an animal in my eyes. You take care of them like you would any other family member and you mourn just the same.
My sympathies sir.
Sorry for the sadness. Pets are tough to say goodby to. They really do become part of the family.
My step daughter had a bird when she was about the same age. It was actually a mean bird. This bird died one weekend when she was away. My wife took the (dead) bird to all of the local pet stores until she found one that looked enough like the deceased bird to pass the test. She found one who, as an added bonus, happened to have a much nicer disposition. My step daughter's only comment was "I wonder what got into the bird. Tweety sure seems a lot nicer theese days." To this day, (12 years later) if she knew, she never gave it up. . . and we still have not told her.
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