Bittersweet

Well tomorrow my cockatiels are coming back to me. It's been 18 months since we traded with another bird loving couple and took their female Senegal Parrot while they took our two male tiels. I adore my boys but they were very VERY loud and shrill all day and with me away most of the time and AR working 100% from home it was a bad situation for everyone. They were much happier at the other place, and Teranga, their little girl Sennie, is much happier here. She was being harassed by an Amazon Parrot who love her and whom she did NOT love back. The man, B, was diagnosed with bone cancer about a month after the trade, and I was happy that my little Tiel, Chewie, loved to sit on his shoulder and rub his head on B's chin. B had never had a bird who really bonded to him, so it was a really nice comfort for him in a difficult time.

Last night B went to the hospital and nearly died. The cancer has spread throughout his body and the end is clearly near. They are an older couple and his wife, S, just can't cope with 6 birds, so my boys are coming back to me and her two rescued Amazons are going to a sanctuary. I'm not sure how this will go. I want to keep my boys for the rest of their lives, but Teranga is very aggressive toward other animals (she terrorizes our cats and keeps Gus, our male Sennie, on his toes) and the tiels are still LOUD! Male tiels just are, and for some reason my boys seem to be extra loud, though they seem happy enough. Russ still works exclusively from home and I'm gone even more now that I have a regular job. For now I'm just delighted to have my boys back. I've missed them. Tomorrow will bring whatever it will bring.