For my beloved first bird, a Pied Cockatiel named
RainbowI'd always been fascinated by birds and, on the night of June 20th, 2002 we left the store with him. He shaped my life so much and I'm really glad I brought him home instead of a turtle (which is actually why we went to the store). I remember all he wanted to do was just sit on my shoulder while I did things, explore the table and play with straws, and that Doritos were his favorite treat.
He died peacefully in my arms at the old age of 12 (2 years past his estimated lifespan) due to respiratory issues he'd probably had since he was little and just his age in general.
For Boris, one of my first two Canadian Geese. He was only with us for about a month before he died, and it wasn't due to a predator, but to gopher poison buried deep in the dirt that he consumed, thanks to the morons that previously owned the land we kept them at.
Bella (in the back), another one of my geese was the runt of four goslings, she'd always been weak and frail but she had so much energy regardless. One night a raccoon (I think it was a raccoon) got into the yard and she took a devastating blow to the side from its claws in order to protect our youngest goose, a gosling named Cookie, from harm. The wound got infected quickly and 2 days later she passed.
For
Bori, Sebastian, and CookieMuch like Boris these three all died the same fate he did...poison. Our neighbor basically put out a giant bag of the stuff to kill the rodents (rats, squirrels, and gophers) which would step in the poison and track it around everywhere...including into my geese's food. I have a feeling parasites may have been involved as well but the poison probably did most of the killing.
This one is for my two ducks which I do not know the fates of.
Frank (rouen duck) and Puddleduck (appleyard duck).
At first we'd gotten Frank as a companion for Natasha as Boris had died and left her lonely. When we got the clutch of 4 geese Frank was left alone as Natasha had adopted the quadrant of goslings. Puddleduck was a companion we got for Frank during this time who, after awhile, became his mate. On the night that cost Bella her life the two went missing and, since they could both fly, I do not know what happened to them. Did they escape or did they get killed? There was no blood nor feathers so I'm hoping it was the former even though we never found them.