Thursday July 6 2017

Tracie told me Betty died yesterday.

I remember him hanging upside down from perches in his cage when he was a baby, and I called him Batty, because he looked like a bat hanging upside down. Tracie changed the name to Betty because she thought he was female. We didn't realize he was male until he started trying to mate with Big Head, after almost a decade of calling him a girl ...

Betty used to make loud, rhythmical whimpering sounds when Tracie held him, as a juvenile bird. It was louder and different from the way other birds whimpered when caught and held.

I remember chasing Betty to put him in a cage once when we were taking the birds to a motel room because the power was out in the trailer. I ran back and forth, chasing Betty, about 20 times through the living room and kitchen, chasing him from one end of the room to the other, until finally he got tired and let me catch him.

Betty loved to sit above a daylight lamp over the TV stand. I put a ladder across the top so he could sit close to the lamp and warm hias feet. He would lean over to warm his chest and head. I should have put a personal heater up there for him ... I think he would have benefitted from more natural light and more warmth. I wish I had got a flight cage to take him outside and let him experience the outdoors more.

Betty and Big Head would sit over the dalight lamp watching over the room, lit from below at night making their faces look spooky, like kids holding flashlights under their faces telling ghost stories ...

Last time I was talking to Betty, I was asking him to let Tykee come up the ladder to get food. I was reminding Betty how Tykee used to let him in and out of their old cage. Both Betty and Tykee looked at me intently, as if they were sharing the memory with me.

I remember Betty as an old friend. We share many memories, some that none others know. I want to meet Betty again in a future incarnation, when we both have different names perhaps. Will we recognize each other? Can we remember something from this incarnation, the time we wore these bodies like tents?

I remember Betty sitting high in the white cage as a young bird, watching me observantly as I held Tabby in my hands during Tabby's last days, talking to her. I looked up once and met Betty's eyes and shared a thought of compassion and sweetness.

Betty had a sweet spirit. She could also chase the other birds, like Tykee, who doesn't fly anymore. But Betty never bit me ...

The cameras in the living room caught a rat climbing the ladder to the counter of food. Betty was sitting up on the curtain rack with Big Head. Zephyr was hanging out under Peaches' old cage with Teenie and Chico. Tykee and Jack were locked in their cage. Jo-jo was ... not sure. On top of the brown chair?

Zephyr flew up next to Betty, and Betty flew down to the counter. The rat came back up the ladder and stopped at the top, mid-stride, staring at Betty who was maybe a foot away, staring back. They stayed still like that for several seconds. Then the rat backed down. Betty advanced towards the ladder along the counter, eating from the food dishes.

Zephyr flew down onto the stool below the counter. Then they both flew up on top of the TV stand. Then Betty flew back down towards the counter and appeared to chase the right or fly down near the rat, behind the brown chair. Zephyr flew down and landed on the stool and seemed to be watching them fight, outside of the cameras' view behind the chair. A few seconds later, Betty flew out from behind the chair, up to the mirror stand next to the curtain rack, near where Big Head was watching from. Then Zephyr flew up and landed right on Betty, prompting Betty to flutter and turn around and fly back down towards the counter. But halfway through the flight he stopped moving and dropped, hard, to the floor under the counter. Then Zephyr and Big Head flew down to stand around her, flapping their wings and undoubtedly squawking but the cameras didn't record any sound.

I wish I could have made Betty's life better. I wish I could communicate better to find out what I could have done to improve things for him.

I remember Betty used to like Cheerios, and I used to hand-feed him on occasion.

Betty resting with Big Head

Betty flying over if Big Head was in the box to get medicine or to go to the vet

Betty flying on my shoulder once in a while

Betty flying down the hallway to the bathroom or the back room

Betty sitting in the covered porch on the bamboo pole, looking at the outdoors