The loss of a beloved pet and kids...
Last night at this time, our precious Kiwi was here and happily singing “If You’re Happy And You Know It” from my shoulder while I made dinner for our family. Kiwi was a 2 1/2 year old Canary Winged Bee Bee parrot that belonged to my 14 year old son. Kiwi has a flight cage and was in it sometimes and out of it more than he was in. He was happiest on a shoulder and spent the majority of his time on my son’s, mine and sometimes my husband’s. When my son was in school, Kiwi came to work with me...I have a cage in my office for him. Last night after dinner, my son went out to the street to run with the neighborhood kiddos like any other summer evening. Kiwi was on top of his cage munching on some seeds and tossing his sparkle ball around. I finished dishes and walked out front to talk to a neighbor...my husband followed shortly after. Kiwi did what he has done so many times the last three years...he jumped off his cage and went to look for his people. He always finds one of us but this time he didn’t. We have been nursing our 16 year old cat at the end of his life...Louis has renal failure and we honesty thought he would not live through this week. He isn’t eating and he is drinking very little. Last night, however, Louis came to life and killed our special, wonderful little bird...the bird who loved to tell us what a pretty bird he was, what a good boy he was...the bird who sung the Addams Family theme and was learning the Andy Griffith song. He was supposed to live 20 years but he live 2 1/2. It’s not Louis’ fault. He was being a cat. He had never shown the slightest interest in Kiwi before but...last night. Today he is back in his warming hut and not interacting at all. It’s a tragic, horrible mystery...what happened last night.
I took the day off to be with my son. He is grieving the first loss of a pet of his own. His tears come in waves as do mine. We’re a mess today. We miss Kiwi desperately...the little green hand full who occupied so much of each of our days. We buried Kiwi behind our apple tree. We carefully wrapped him up with a meal of his favorite treats...a pecan, a grape and a little piece of cheese. I am devastated by the events of last night and as bad as I feel I would take 100 times more if I could take my son’s pain away. Watching him hurt is almost unbearable.
Tomorrow I will call our vet regarding dear Louis...we’ve had him since he was a feral kitten abandoned with his siblings in a shed at our shop. The vet told me a week ago that we were close to having to make a decision. I don’t know what comes next. I didn’t plan on losing two precious pets so close together. It is just awful.
I know the news is busy tonight and there is a lot going on. I know Kiwi was just a little green bird but he was a Condor in our hearts. This has been a really hard day.
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You've lost a treasured member of your family and oh yes it hurts.
Time will help.
I know how difficult it is to lose family pets.
Louis is not in his correct state of mind. I had a cat that was diagnosed with carcinoma. The vet explained that her quality of life would be poor and the cancer was basically eating her insides. We scheduled the appointment for her to be euthanized and in waiting for that appointment, she had moments of complete terror towards me and other moments of her usual loving self. I never knew who I was coming home to in her final days. It was heartbreaking. When the day her appointment came, a piece of me died that day as well.
I wish you and your family the strength to get through this difficult time.
It’s devastating to lose your beloved pets. They fill spaces you don’t even know about until they’re not there anymore.
Now I’m thinking about my lost loved one and crying. 
I'm so sorry MontanaMama
RIP Kiwi
I cannot imagine being in your shoes, and I'm so deeply sorry you're enduring this right now. I've been fortunate enough to at least have a few months between the passing of my beloved fur babies... I'm so sorry for all of you right now.
😢
no words can express this heartbreak.
I had a dog I loved so much that killed a sweet abandoned kitty which came up to the farmhouse in the middle of a snowstorm.
I knew my dog was capable of this and had placed the kitty "snowflake" in a shed. Somehow she escaped and it was over before her life had started.
there are no words. I am so very sorry. I have always loved birds but have always feared a tragedy as such with my critters. (sigh)
I also have a 17-year-old kitty with renal failure and every day is a reminder of the fragility and preciousness of life.
We have one named Pot Pie that likes to sit on your shoulder...like Kiwi. She jumps off the roost in the morning and wants to be carried while we gather grain and meal worms for the flock.
I'm so sorry for your family.
I’m still all chopped up since Goldie, our 16-year-old “shepherd-something” headed off to the Rainbow Bridge. Last Friday. So it hasn’t even been a whole week yet. I’m like you in that I find myself thinking - “gee, a week ago she was still here...” and “last week at this time we were about to take her out for her evening ‘constitutional’.”
I’m still a mess, pretty much. I’ve lost other cats and dogs but this one - this one hit me hard. Melancholy as hell. It’s good that you posted about Kiwi, and eventually Louis too. They really are our beloveds, too. Visiting angels for sure. Thanks so much for sharing their stories with us. And lots of DUers will read your post and know about YOUR visiting angels and how much these little critters mean to you.
Many soft but strong pairs of shoulders get shared at these times. You’ll find comfort and sympathy, and empathy. You may even find you’re turning around and helping somebody else here when it’s his or her turn to grieve.
You do not mourn alone. DU will buoy you up. Sure worked for me (again) last weekend. This is a wonderful community. And it’s here for you right this minute.
I appreciate your kind words and am very sorry to hear of the loss of dear Goldie. What a heartbreak!
I hesitated to post anything about Kiwi. I’m pretty private. But, I kept picking up my iPad and looking in on the news here on DU and couldn’t focus on the mayhem going on around us. I thought I might write an OP to get my thoughts out and then delete it. I posted it because, like you said, so many others share about their lost loved ones both human and critter and folks seem to be very supportive. People who love animals are people I want near me during times like these.
🦜❤️
I can imagine your and your son's pain. Poor little Kiwi, the little Condor in your hearts. So much personality and memories in a little pkg.
Respect for Kiwi.
My heart aches for you - and certainly for your son. The loss of a beloved pet can devastate the entire family, but the pain of losing both, and so unexpectedly, has to be unbearable. Your post brought me to tears, too. 
I’m comforted to see you here. I know that you know.
My husband wanted to give Kiwi’s flight cage and toys to a coworker who is getting a bird soon for their family. Owen (my son) and I were horrified at the thought. Last night, Owen said “Mama, I see myself with another bird...not now because I miss Kiwi so much but sometime. I don’t want to give his stuff away”. I promised him we would keep all of Kiwi’s things. I started to wonder why we continue to sign up for what inevitably ends in heart break? When a pet leaves us, it seems another always finds its way to our home and the cycle starts again. While I will never have another bird/cat combination again...I will support Owen pursuing a bird if he wants to. Seems lots of folks here on DU do the same thing. Are we all crazy people?
