A Sparrow Falls

He was my morning bird, you know. All my other pets were sluggish in the morning, not wanting to wake up, but not my little Ikey-bird.

I would uncover his cage first and he's be bright-eyed and friendly and hop on my finger for a morning hello. Then he'd sing as I uncovered the other birds and opened the blinds and pretty soon he'd have all the birds singing and the cats would get up and stretch.

So as hard as it was to bury his cold little body last night, it hurt the most this morning, when it was so ........... quiet.


He was buried in great state. I made him a soft and pretty coffin, lined with a paisley satin in the colors of his feathers. I wrote him a little note on the inside of the lid, and David and I took him to Bunny's house.
We dug a hole under the pepper tree in the middle of the yard, at an angle that will give him sun on chilly winter mornings, and shade on hot summer afternoons. As I struggled to dig in the hard soil, I handed the shovel to David and said, "Ikey-bird would have wanted you to dig his grave. He, er, always spoke so highly of you."

Bunny's kids did a great funeral procession and after we put his coffin the hole, the boys added some birdseed and flowers, and Philip sweetly(?) offered to kill a few of the local wild parrots to bury with Ikey-bird to give him some slaves in the afterlife, but I drew the line there. It was nice to laugh for a moment, and I'm sure Ikey-bird would have approved of a little laughter at his graveside.

I said goodbye, and shoveled the dirt over my little friend.
That's death. As much as you hate it, you can't do anything but bury them. There's no second chance, no way to fight it, no one more thing to say. The only peace comes when you treated them well in life, which I think I did. In his short life, Ikey-bird had about three names, got to see something of the world, and was dearly loved by two owners. Its like Bunny said when someone asked her if she was going to send flowers for her grandmother's funeral and Bunny said, "No. I sent them while she was alive."
I gave my little bird all I could, with a kiss on the head for topping. So the wound will heal, and I'll be fine, but I'll be a little red-eyed and moody for a while, because I loved him and he was too young and it sucks and I miss him so.