Goodbye Sweet Tiki

He and Ria had a hard life. I adopted those two back on March 16, 2017. Unfortunately, Ria was taken before her time this January. Tiki put up a good fight as well. He faced many challenges in his far too brief (and expensive ) time with me. He was always a happy boy, finding joy in the smallest things in life. A few days ago he even made blood gush forth from my fingers.

Unfortunately, today was the day when he would finally leave his broken, tired body behind to join Ria whom he loved so much. He was brave at the vet, and he tried his hardest. He'd had a happy life, filled with plenty of struggles. It was time for him to see Ria again, so we helped him move on so that he could finally fly, run, and sing as his kind is meant to do.

He will always be my sweet, special boy. I'm not going to be able to see him for many decades, but I'm looking forward to the day when I can see him flying with a flock of his own. Ria and Tiki, I love you so much. May your new bodies be strong and may you experience everlasting love and happiness. You've made me a better person and I'm so glad I was able to know you. Fly free, my sweet cripples.

So sorry!!

Aw, I am so sorry for your loss.

I like your words about seeing Tiki again someday. That is very sweet... I like to believe that when its my time, I'll be reunited with all my past loved pets and they'll all be there to greet me at the pearly gates.

So sorry to read of Tiki's passing. We have all read about his journey with you. May he and Ria fly free forever!

My deepest condolences for your loss of Tiki. I hope you will find his sweet memories comforting.

You're a hero. You saw both into Eternity as loved and treasured darlings.

You had me sobbing on my keyboard yesterday!


So sorry for you loss and I really hope you'll meet up again later.

Awe, I'm so sorry. Take comfort in the fact that he's no longer in any pain and is now flying free...

Thanks everyone . It's been a really hard week for us. I honestly thought we'd be together for a lot longer. Looking back at it now, I should've realized something was wrong when he bit me badly twice in a matter of seconds a few days prior. Whenever he bit, his intent was to only cause pain, so his bites were never that bad (they freaking hurt, though). The day he bit me he was clearly trying to cause damage. He actually removed little chunks from me and there was a surprising amount of blood. The only time I've bled more from a bird bite was that time Noah savaged me when I was first training him.

His illness or whatever came on quickly, which I'm thankful for. I'm really glad it happened during vet hours, as far too many of my birds have taken a turn for the worse on the weekend or in the middle of the night.

I treasure every moment I got to spend with those two, even if most of those memories are of me and my various assistants trying to convince them to swallow their meds as they stabbed me with their little pushpin beaks. Man, that was the thing with those two. All my other birds give you REAL bites. With Ria and Tiki, on the other hand, it felt like somebody was assaulting you with a pushpin, trying to scoop little bits of flesh out of your fingers. Oh, and lucky us, half the time we'd end up with some sort of itchy, sore allergic reaction to their mouth germs. Man, I think it might've been Tiki who shredded my fingers right before we brought home our reef tank a few months back. I had to spend HOURS with my arms in the tank, mucksing around in the saltwater. Let's just say...it tickled.

I definitely learned a lot from looking after them, and I'll definitely continue to special needs animals, although hopefully I won't have to care for anyone as immune compromised as them. I actually have my eye on this one disabled kākāriki at a parrot rescue. He's even more disabled than my two, but he's coming along well and I hope to adopt him when he's better. A LOT better.

As a side note, last week was a really bad week. The amano shrimp larvae I was raising died, one of my emerald rasbora fry developed dropsy, the giant betta I ordered was DOA because the shipper packed him with only a quarter of the water he needed (I mourned for days), one of my Betta imbellis jumped out of his tank and died (my dad removed the cover without me knowing -_-), my three lettuce sea slugs vanished, and my pet cricket died (it's a long story, but he was a rescue who lost his back legs and was REALLY attached to me). I feel I'm forgetting something. Let's just say I ended up pretty dehydrated from all the crying. Weird how humans cry. Pretty sure only us and elephants cry. Maybe crying evolved in humans because we need an extremely obvious sign of distress. We're not exactly good at reading body language. Hmm, makes sense. Elephants are extremely social animals as well, and they aren't exactly capable of expressing grief in a way (besides crying) that other herd members could pick up on.

Again, thanks for your kind words . I hope those sweet little babies made a difference for those who knew them.

Well it's been just over a week since I lost my precious baby GCC called Baci. I named him after my favourite brand of Italian chocolates, and it is also Italian for "kisses". And indeed he was the sweetest tiniest most angelic creature the good Lord ever breathed life into (except for those hormonal rages!!!) I never fail to be amazed how much joy a bird can bring into my life, but it's tempered by the fact that the more joyful they are, the harder it is to lose one. I hope Baci has joined Tiki and all the other feathery angels beyond the Rainbow Bridge where one day we will all be reunited again:07: