Paulina, our Nanday Conure, passed away today. She’s the one that started our love affair with birds.
We acquired Paulina after the death of a friend in September of 2001. Our friend’s husband didn’t want to deal with “that noisy bird,” as he said it reminded him too much of his departed wife (though we believe it was because he didn’t know how to care for her). We retrieved her from his house, where her cage was against a wall with two pieces of furniture on either side. We took her home and placed her cage in front of a huge window so she could see the outside world.
For the next three weeks she seemed in mourning, as all she would do was eat and sit next to her fuzzy cozy inside her cage, not making a sound. Slowly she came out of her slump and became one of the most gentle birds we’ve seen.
During her time with us, we acquired Ducky, Sugar (departed last April), Melody, Pepper, Blue, Snowflake, Lucky, and Tweety. She acclimated to these additions quite well. Ducky became quite attached to Paulina, even going so far as to become aggressive to us whenever we would approach her. He’s since calmed down a bit, but I know he will miss her.
I know I will miss Paulina waddling out to the kitchen, chasing the cats around, drinking from the cat’s water bowl, and sitting quietly on my shoulder every weekend morning.