So yesterday my 14 y.o. daughter arrived home to find our beautiful teal-colored parakeet dead on the bottom of its cage. It either starved to death or died of thirst. The guilt is pretty dramatic.
My household is busy, with two fully employed parents and two extremely engaged teenagers. All of us thought someone else was taking care of the bird. None of us had it as a regular chore; usually Dad took care of it over the weekend (cleaning the cage, etc.) between other projects but this past weekend he skipped it in favor of something more pressing. Once in a while I’d give it food and water if I noticed it was needed, but I was just not thinking about it over the past week.
The parakeet had not been friendly; none of us interacted with it much. I never wanted a pet but we acquired this one to assuage the kids after the previous one died of old age–and we inherited that one in the first place. Reluctant bird owners, we.
Anyway, what’s done is done and all we can do is not do it again. But I feel pretty crappy.
She (we think) was very pretty. Her name was Kitty Perry. Rest in peace, Kitty.
I don’t think people should get a pet if they’re reluctant to do so in the first place. Lack of foresight. Failing to ensure it regularly has something as silly as food/water… Dramatic guilt? Appropriate.
My gf and I both work and lead busy lives. We have three dogs, seven parakeets, an African Grey, two horses, seven hens, two domestic geese, and a barn cat. When we vacation the expense of a live-in pet sitter exceeds the cost of a rental car. Our pets get better care than most people.
Some households should be pet free. Maybe get a birdfeeder for your yard?
Believe me, I feel terrible and have no intention of ever getting another pet. It was never in my game plan but we stupidly allowed our kids to have their way. The first parakeet was long-lived and happy, because it came to us trained and friendly and the kids had less busy lives when they were younger and took care of it. When it passed they were eager to repeat that experience.
I’m not blaming the bird, I completely blame myself, my family, and our tunnel vision. The girls too have learned a major lesson and it’s brought them up short.
That’s not bad household management, that’s bad parenting. If you let your kids talk you into getting a animal, you make it their responsibility to care for it and train it and you as the rational adult follow up on it all.
They had custody of a living, breathing animal that, in the wild, would never, ever willingly be alone by itself. Birds are not ornaments, they’re living creatures.
They locked in in solitary confinement, and ignored it until it died of thirst and hunger. That is a torturous death. It was cruel and inhumane and it can not be fixed. That is just… I have no words. No more pets for that household, ever. People who can accidentally neglect an animal to death should not have pets. I’m sorry they had to figure this out the hard way.
Does that make them bad human beings? No. It does make them terrible (former) pet owners.
Careless and irresponsible, so for certain values of “bad” yes they are, but they aren’t roasting puppies and kittens alive or torturing fellow human beings, which is a different level of bad.
Nobody interacted with it because it wasn’t trained…
…wasn’t trained because nobody interacted with it…
And for that it died a slow and horrible death by the people living right next to it.
