Page 168 - Dark Matter Issue5 Part II

The next morning Lily bellowed out his wake up call. I leapt out of bed to stand below

him as I cooed good morning. When he followed me into the kitchen and hopped down

on the counter, I knew the crisis had passed. Lily had made his choice.

Day after day, Lily attached himself to me like glue, flying into whatever room I was in,

watching my every move. Eventually he returned to his favorite basket on the porch and

struck up conversations with his favorite neighbor, blue jay. If a mourning dove landed

on the sill outside the window Lily would puff up like a blow fish and rasp his territorial

call.

Last summer Lily B, Hope, Lucy, and I drove out to the high desert of New Mexico to live

for a year. We arrived during the monsoon season and I soon put him in a large outdoor

cage to enjoy the soaking rains and warm sun. He sang his heart out to his avian

neighbors and greeted me each morning with his song.

One morning while walking the dogs I saw feathers scattered on the ground, some with

blood on them. Following the trail around the corner I was horrified to see my poor bird

huddled under the plywood cover of his cage. His eyes were glazed over and he didn’t

respond to my voice. Reaching into the cage I gently gathered my injured bird in my

hands and brought him in the house to inspect his wounds. Lily B was in shock.

Something had ripped a hole in his flesh and made a three-inch gash that ran from his

right eye to his breast. His right eye was swollen shut. Had he been blinded, too.

It was Labor Day weekend and I couldn’t reach a vet. The rest of the day and night

passed in a blur. I remember nothing except my repeated attempts to comfort him. I

couldn’t sleep that night and wept, hoping he would die quickly.

The next morning, he was still alive. I made an appointment with a vet for that afternoon.

The vet gently took my bird, examined him and told me she could do surgery the next

morning. She hoped she could save his life. I left him there, after telling him I loved him,

and came home.