Goodbye Candi

I have a lori (type of parrot), for close to 20 years. During the summer she lost use of one of her legs, the vet was not sure why, we babied her all summer. Changed her eating areas, her cage LO, and tryed everything to help her. She never did regain use of the leg. Friday morning she was her normal self, I played with her, and she talked with me. At noon she did not have use of either leg. She was on the bottom of her cage suffering, like a bobble head, side to side, it was horrible to see. I took her back to the vet. He suggested that the prognosis was not good. We could have MRI'd her, x-rayed her, waited for a diagnosis, or upon his suggestion humanely put her out of her suffering. It was a horrible decision to make. DH was in tears, the two kids were bawling. My bird just coo'ed at us, and kept saying come here, come here, she wanted us. She looked at us. It was a horrible decision to make. I hate having someones life in my decision making power.

My kitchen is so so quiet without her talking to us, and calling to us. No more mimics of the microwave, no more Hello, no more come here. An integral part of our family is missing. It is horrible.