All good things must come to an end

There are dog families and there are cat families, mine was a parakeet family. The reasons are two fold: my mom claims to be allergic to both cats and dogs AND my dad grew up in a parakeet family himself.

I could list all the parakeets my family has seen throughout the years, but there are really three that are pertinent to this blog. For my eleventh birthday I told my parents I wanted my own parakeet, not that I didn't love the family parakeet, but I wanted one of my own. I found myself a beautiful yellow parakeet that I named Lucky. It was only a mere few days of chirping back and forth, Lucky from my room and Igor (the family parakeet) from the kitchen, when we finally decided to unite the two star crossed lovers. Lucky was no longer my bird, but belonged to Igor. Lucky lived about 8 years.

On a whim my senior year of college I decided to travel down to the local petstore and get myself another parakeet. My friend Rita named the bird Julio, no clue why, but I liked it so the name stuck. I was not living in dorms, but on/off campus apartments where I had my own room. Sadly Julio only lived a few months; turns out things like scented candles, febreeze, and body spray are all lethal to parakeets and I used these on a daily basis. My now husband and I had just started dating at the time and he promised me for a Christmas gift he would get me another parakeet when I was ready.

About six months later and a thousand miles away I fell in love with another yellow parakeet that I named Julito (Spanish for little Julio). We called her Juli though. Juli and I had an interesting relationship. At first it was just me and her in my apartment, so we bonded. I finger trained her, shared meals with her, and we chilled on the couch watching TV together. Then Juli fell in love with my dad and couldn't give a crap about me. When Antonio moved in with me, Juli bonded with him too. She would bite me, screech at me, and flat out ignore me unless I had food. She would eat anything: ice cream, steak, tacos, pasta...

When we moved back to NY a couple of years ago Juli and I re-formed our previous relationship. Maybe it was the four months we spent apart, but she had a new found appreciation for me. I'd like to think that if I wasn't her favorite person, I at least cracked the top three.

Juli started laying batches of unfertilized eggs. She was doing so many of them we were concerned for her health. There were multiple trips to the vet.Then she started plucking out her own feathers. She didn't seem depressed, still flying around and chirping, but we got her a parakeet friend in case she was lonely. Soon her eggs didn't have shells and they were giant balls of blood. She was covered in blood. The last few days she could barely move except when she was shaking.

This morning I came downstairs into teh kitchen and saw a note on her still covered cage "Please, please don't uncover". Antonio had already left for work. My heart sank as I peaked inside and saw her tail sticking out underneath a folded papertowel. As I lifted the paper towel tears sprang to my eyes. Juli was dead.

All good things must come to an end and Juli Kaponer Abate was a great thing in my life. RIP Jan 3rd 2004-Sep 27 2010. We'll be having a proper burial within the next few days at Antonio's parents backyard. At least now she's no longer suffering. As hard as this is on me and Antonio, I can't imagine what Juno (our other parakeet) will be going through.

Everything happens for a reason or so I'm told.