Goodbye Moonpie. We will miss you very much.

As always, when one of my pets dies, I write a tribute as therapy…

Moonpie, in the picture on the left below, was the loving mate of Ginger, one of the crippled baby parakeets I adopted. Moonpie and Ginger were the sweetest couple. Ginger had a very bad case of splay leg, a condition where parrot-type birds’ legs do the splits permanently.

Moonpie was the helpmate of Ginger in the truest sense of the world. Ginger cannot stand on a perch like the other birds. Ginger stands on one foot and holds onto the side of the cage with his other foot.

Moonpie would stand behind Ginger so that Ginger could lean on her. They would stand like that for hours.

Here is a post I wrote about Ginger and Moonpie’s relationship: Love conquers all…

Parrot-type birds mate for life. Of all the parakeet, cockatiel and lovebird couples I have had since I have had pet birds, Ginger and Moonpie were the closest. They were never apart.

Lately, they had been laying on the floor of the cage together. Birds do not like to be on the floor — they feel more comfortable up high away from the danger of predators like cats and dogs.

Even thought my birds have never lived outside, God wired them up with the knowledge of predators so that they could protect themselves. This post talks about the first time I saw them snuggling on the floor together: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow….

Anyway, so Ginger and Moonpie have been laying on the cage floor in a snuggle position for the last few weeks. Since Ginger does the splits constantly, the floor is the only place he can relax. When he lays on the floor, one leg goes directly to the right, and one leg goes directly to the left.

Moonpie was always right next to him, either laying her head on his back, or laying side by side. As I said, this is very unnatural for birds, but they had come to the point where they felt safe this way. Whenever I would come close to the cage, they would both move up to a “safer” area. But, I have been taking Ginger and snuggling him for a minute, and putting him back on the cage floor telling him he was safe there.

Today, as always, they’ve been side by side. But, today they were exceptionally cute because Ginger had one of his crippled legs laying over and around Moonpie to protect her.

Moonpie had a long life. She is one of the last of three sets of babies that were “born” here one year about ten years ago. Their parents were Joy, a one-eyed parakeet I adopted and Davy an old man parakeet I adopted from a gentleman being sent overseas with the military.

At the most, I had 21 parakeets. Now I have just Ginger, Beady and Gumby (a couple), Shelly, Oscar and Freddie.

Freddie and Ginger were both featherless crippled babies I adopted after they had been abandoned from a breeder, apparently, because they were both crippled. This post has a section with more details about that and how I came to adopt them:

Please adopt homeless and handicapped pets

Beady, Gumby, Shelly and Oscar are the only ones left of all my babies who were born here. Beady and Gumby live in one cage alone. They have to be alone because Shelly wants Beady in the worst way, and literally fights with Gumby over him.

Ginger is my only other male. I named the crippled babies Fred and Ginger — you can’t tell the gender of parakeets until they are grown — I got them both wrong. Ginger is a boy and Freddie is a girl.

I feel very bad for Ginger since Ginger and Moonpie were so close. But, there might be a twinkling of happiness in store for Ginger. Ginger is the only male in the cage with Shelly, Oscar and Freddie. In the past, whenever one of my female parakeets have died, the other females make their move on the widower in no time flat.

Beady, for instance, is on his third mate. Parrot-type birds love to be in a couple, and I’ve experienced several couples form after the death of on the the couple’s previous mates.

Still, I can’t help feeling sorry for Ginger. He was laying next to her to the end, with his leg curved over and around her. Finally, he realized she was gone, and climbed elsewhere.

Goodbye Moonpie. Ginger and I will miss you very much.

Will Rogers said this about dogs, but personally, I feel it applies to all pets:

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”

As I said at the beginning of this post, writing this was my therapy to deal with the death of my little pet. I do not expect anybody to read this entire post. However, if you made it this far down Click Here.

Dear God, thank you for letting me be the guardian of my little Moonpie and for letting Ginger have such a loving mate.