Merry, the happy budgie

Merry, my happy little bird

Merry was an amazingly happy little bird, who enriched my life so much. Today, totally out of the blue, something happened (my guess is he choked on something) and I found him on the floor of the cage when I came home. It is amazing how attached you can grow to a little bird... Especially since he should've had so many more years to be happy. I had him 5.5 years, together with Pippin, since the summer day I bought them in Winnipeg, after 2 years of birdlessness (not fun). It was an awesome day, which I remember very well. And every day since then it has been a joy to come home.

During the last year, Merry adopted a few cute habits - such as flying to my head, walking up to the front of my head and bending down saying CHIRP! Then he would slide down the side of my head, hanging onto my hair, and stick his head out in front of my eye (mainly the left side) and start chirping his heart away. Sometimes he was so persistent doing this when I was eating dinner, that I had to put on a hat to be able to get some food into me. He adored playing with my thumb, and if he came with me into the office room, it would be a challenge to type.

During the trip over to New Mexico, I had the birds in a tiny cage inside a bag with star shaped breathing walls. Whenever I opened the side of the bag, two budgies would come and start playing with my fingers, while chirping happily. A most wonderful trip. They did not enjoy being stuck in Albuquerque due to a "snow storm" though. Having to stay in a hotel in that tiny cage made them loudly tell me how annoyed they were... They managed the trip very well though, and were very happy to arrive in their new home in Socorro the next day. A few weeks later, I got to borrow a palace of a cage from my birdsitter friends, which made the sejour even better. The first few weeks, flying was a challenge (due to the thin air), but Merry soon got better at it, and flew as well as ever during his last week. (The photo caption has a link to some Merry photos.)

Speaking of budgie personalities btw, check out this story!