For the past week or so, I've been really missing Noey. If you read the first post about Digby I wrote (which is here if you didn't), you will have already read a bit about her. I think I've been missing her so much because of how much Lenore reminds me of her and because of the cockatiel that I made friends with last time I was at the pet store (that post is here). (I apologise in advance for making a sad post. I just need to get this out.)

Noey was my baby. I don't usually refer to my pets as babies, and I don't think of them as kids like some people, but if any of my pets have ever been that dear to me, Noey would be on that list, along with Bella and Delilah.

Noey was a very good bird. She would greet me the second I walked through my bedroom door. If I was in the hall outside of my bedroom but wasn't coming in, she would call out for me. She loved to snuggle and she loved scritches. If her cage door was opened, she'd happily come out for anybody. She would ride on my shoulder all day if I were to let her, she wasn't afraid of hardly anything, and she was ornery as could be, often stealing food off my plate or trying to pull decorative pieces off my shirt.

Shortly after I got her, I went on a trip to Kansas to visit relatives and took her with me. I had only had her for a couple weeks. She did fabulous. She charmed every one of my relatives that she met. The car ride didn't seem to bother her at all. 

Last Christmas/New Year (2009), we went out to Kansas between Christmas and New Years. I left Noey at home. One of my older brother was to take care of the animals while we were gone.

I have a bit of a sixth sense and I can tell often tell when something bad is about to happen. The moment we crossed the Ohio River and into Louisville on our way home, I started feeling queasy and uneasy and had a general sense of anxiety. (This, by the way, has happened to me more than once. The other most notable occasion was on 9/11, but I'm not going into that.) I tried really hard to push the feeling away and tried to convince myself everything would be fine when we got home. My dad was there, after all, so he would have called us if something bad was happening. Though as hard as I tried, I could not shake the feeling.

When we got home on New Years Eve, I immediately went to my room in the basement and was not greeted by Noey. This would happen on rare occasions, especially if it was late. And it was late, so, again, I tried to tell myself it was nothing. I walked straight to her cage, and she was huddled in one corner, fluffed up. I reached in and offered her my hand, telling her to step up. She didn't respond. I carefully picked her up and rushed upstairs to my parents. I handed her to my mom, while I called the emergency vet and got some Cheerios, one of Noey's favourite treats, out. Noey refused the Cheerios. While I was on the phone with the vet, Noey passed away.

Fly free, Noey. Gone, but never forgotten.

I got a sample of Harrison's bird pellets in the mail today. I offered some to both Lenore and Digby. Both ate one pellet each when I gave it to them. Digby mostly just threw the pellets on the floor. Lenore was too distracted by other things to be interested.

I also cooked some rice for the birds today. Digby was just kind of indifferent. I've given her rice once before, and she wasn't too interested then either. Lenore liked it though, and dove into the food before I even got it in his cage.

When I was cooking the rice, I had Digby out. I had her sitting on her T-perch in the kitchen, and she was just watching me. When I got within a foot of her perch, she started bobbing up and down, so I put my arm out and she jumped right up and gave me a little chirp. She's really getting to be pretty friendly (in comparison to when I got her).

I should also say that when I had him out tonight, Lenore did not bite me!

Delilah hasn't gotten on Lenore's cage since yesterday morning, and I put away the squirt bottle.

How did I do it?

First, I blocked her ability to go up beside the cage by putting some bird toys and various other things there. I thought that would be enough since that was the way she was getting up there. After I did that, though, she decided that she could jump straight from the floor onto the top of Lenore's cage.

To keep her from doing that was quite easy. I took a big, but not thick, hardcover book. I put it on top of Lenore's cage and left about 2 inches hanging over the front. Delilah has tried once to jump up there with the book there. The only time she did, she fell to the ground, knocked the book off the cage, and ran and hid. She's yet to try it again.

The spring semester of school starts tomorrow. I'm no longer going to the school I was going to last semester. I'll be living at home, which I'm really happy about, but there will be many things about the other school I will miss.

My classes this semester are pretty varied, and I have only one biology class. And I'm not in the lab at all, which really disappoints me. I love working in the lab. *Sigh.* Anyway, my classes this semester are Spanish I, an art history class, and astrobiology. I'm also going to add a computer class, intro to computers. I'm most excited about the astrobiology class. The course description says, "Examines topics related to the origins of planets, the requirements for life, the search for life away from Earth, the societal implications of discovering other forms of life, and the future of life on Earth and in space from a multidisciplinary perspective." It will be a very interesting class. This semester should be pretty easy, especially compared to last semester when I had general zoology, microbiology, chemistry, and physics, all of which had labs (for a total of 18 credit hours!).

Today Digby ate pellets! She only ate a few, but she ate them. I've been getting her out whenever I eat lunch so I can try to get her to eat some new foods. Today I gave her three Roudybush pellets, which she ate. Then, I gave her about four more, which she picked up, tasted, and tossed down.

I think she just doesn't like pellets for some reason.

I also noticed that Lenore isn't eating his pellets. I'm still giving him the mix the breeder gave us, which has seed, Roudybush pellets in the smallest size, and Higgins egg food. Lenore is picking out all the yummy stuff, but leaving the pellets. I gave him just pellets last night and he refused to eat them.

Oh, and I discovered that Digby eats really good when she's out, but not as good when she's in her cage. If I give her lettuce while I have her out, she'll eat quite a bit. If I give her Nutri-berries while she's out, she will eat all of it. But if I give her lettuce in her cage, she ignores it. If I give her Nutri-berries in her cage, she picks out the seeds and grinds up the rest, leaving behind crumbs and some chunks of other stuff.

These birds are making me crazy!

Delilah is getting to be very bad about wanting to get on to or next to Lenore's cage. Lenore's cage is currently in my room, which is where Delilah spends most of her time. At first, Delilah was mildly interested and watched Lenore from below. Now, though, she is constantly trying to get beside or on top of the cage. It's driving me mad!

I've been keeping a squirt bottle at my side while I'm in my room, but Delilah is very resistant to the squirt bottle. It's more of a mild irritation. I have to squirt her sometimes five times before she gets down. When she does get down, she licks herself for a minute and then hops right back up. She knows what I mean when I say, "Get down." She argues with me about it, meowing her I-don't-want-to meow.

This isn't the first time she's tried something like this. She absolutely loves the guinea pigs. Their cage used to not be covered. That lasted until I got Delilah and she grew enough to jump up there. She likes to get in the guinea pig cage. She doesn't chase them. She just sits and watches them, sometimes patting them. So, I covered the cage so she can't get in, but she still sits on top of the cage and sometimes sleeps there. The guinea pigs don't mind, so long as she isn't in the cage.

Delilah is different than Shadow. The second Shadow catches sight or smell of the birds or the guinea pigs, she goes into her mighty hunter mode and starts stalking her (would be) prey. Delilah, on the other hand, doesn't want to hunt the guinea pigs. I think she thinks they are her friends. She also isn't as interested in the birds as Shadow is, and she can be easily distracted.

Delilah on the guinea pig cage.
The cage had to be changed again after this picture because she figure out how to get in.

Digby and I were sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch. Digby was on the playgym, stealing a few bites of my rice and eating the lettuce I gave her. Before I got Digby out, I looked around for Shadow because she is always too interested in the birds. She was upstairs.

But, in the blink of an eye (and I really mean that's how fast it happened), Shadow jumped onto the kitchen table, Digby flew to the floor, and Shadow got on the chair, ready to get Digby. I grabbed Shadow by the scruff of the neck--the only part of her I could grab quickly. I looked down at Digby just long enough to register that she was alive, and I threw Shadow outside.

I picked Digby up and gave her a quick check. She looked okay, just shook up, so I put her on my shoulder to calm down. She's fine now, and being her usual self.

Shadow is at the back door, meowing and begging to be let in.

My heart is still racing. I'm really thankful Digby is okay. I'll have to be more careful and watch for Shadow to come in when I have the birds out.