I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry

"Did you ever see a Robin weep,
When leaves begin to die?
That means he's lost the will to live
And I'm so lonesome I could cry."

Well, my little Lucky dove finally gave up the will to live and went to the Rainbow Bridge sometime after I covered the birds up for the night last night.

He was pretty old to begin with, and he's always been a little on the psychotic/neurotic side; has always picked his feathers and then started picking at his skin. It's actually amazing he lived so long, but.....every time I found him on the bottom of the aviary when we were in Napa, I'd nurse him back to health and even with his picking, he lived a pretty good long life.

Poor little guy; the last few days he really picked himself and was bleeding which wasn't really anything new, but I had a feeling this was going to be it.

I put a heat source on the cage so he wouldn't be cold and his little Parakeet friend TweetyBird kept him warm too. Tweety's been calling for Lucky all morning long; it's sad. He's not ready to make friends with my other dove, Cocoa, so for now he'll have to just look at him thru the cages' bars.

I suppose I should be relieved that Lucky's out of any misery he has been in, but he was born in the aviary I had in the back yard of my apartment and he was the only dove I brought to the desert with me. I gave all the others to a friend of a friend, but I knew nobody would care about Lucky because he was such a head case, and I had committed to caring for him, so I brought him along with the cockatoos to the desert.

He had a kind of a rough start to life I think....he somehow got caught by some rodent or something one night and I found him almost dead on the bottom of the cage. Of course, I NEVER find ANYTHING all the way dead; I find them ALMOST gasping their last breath and I'm compelled to bring them into the house and spend months nursing them back to health. But poor Lucky (is that an oxymoron, LOL?) had had his skin all ripped to shreds and had a gaping wound under one of his legs. It eventually healed over, but no feathers ever grew back on his abdomen at all, so he sort of looked like a plucked chicken over most of his body except for his head and wings....and then he started pulling his feathers out all over his body...in the photo, you can see he's missing a big area near his tail....but he always kept on keepin' on. I've lost track, but he was at least 12 years old. The little guy is at peace now, but I miss him, he was a sweet little bird.

Today is making plans for Valentine's Day. I refuse to go out to dinner b/c the restaurants all raise their prices and offer different things than they usually do, so you never know what you'll wind up with, plus the service is usually lousy too~ I finally figured it's just not worth it. So, Melanee and I will come up with a FABULOUS menu (we've already got the champagne and caviar on the list), and my very BFF just called and we're trying to coerce him into flying down here for a few days so it will be a REAL celebration. Nobody enjoys champagne and caviar like Roy and I do! Huh, Roy? Of course, nobody enjoys anything as much as Roy and I do, because we were elected at birth to be the ultimate enjoyers of everything LOL. And we take that responsibility VERY seriously!

So, we'll have to drink a special toast to Lucky Dove now that he's flying free, beautifully feathered and healthy and happy again~