A really really sad thing happened. The day before Isaac's 4th birthday, our pet parakeet, Mila (who is a boy), died. We found him on the bottom of the cage, but he was not dead yet, oh no. He was having some sort of agonal breaths. We stayed with him until the end. Isaac made a little bed for him though and I think Isaac did not think he was dead yet when we left..
because when we got back he was super upset and cried and cried and cried. I cried too. It is always sad to lose a pet, but it is indescribably sad for your baby to lose their first pet. Or maybe I was just feeling extra emotional that day. I remember what it felt like when Peet, my first parakeet, died after he crawled under a cushion and got sat on.
Well, I decided, we have done all we can for Mila, and now he deserves a proper burial, as all good pets do. So we went and buried him in our community garden plot. Maybe that sounds kind of weird, but we put him in by the raspberries. I guess our other option was somewhere in the landscaping behind our apartment or back in the little wooded area behind the other apartments, but that might have looked a little suspicious....
So we found a good-sized box. Isaac completely broke down and cried when we wrapped him up to put him in the box. That is actually the part where we both cried. At that moment, it became very real. Mila is really dead and this is it.
Isaac looks pretty chipper in the above photo though. The choice of the Wheat Thins box may have helped distract him from its contents.
And that is the story, accompanied by several totally unnecessary photos, of how Isaac's first pet died.
Isaac has been wanting to remember Mila in our prayers. I'm not sure how appropriate it is, but I figure it is an okay coping mechanism, and God looks after all the birds too. He also has a renewed interest in praying for Mr. Troxel. To date his only experiences with death are those two: Mr. Troxel (we actually went to his funeral on Isaac's 3rd birthday...) and Mila. Nobody die next year any time within a month on either side of Isaac's birthday. Got it? Okay thanks.
