Thursday, April 29, 2010

Parakeet Resusitation

It takes all kinds to make the world a better place, or maybe just a few folks who are a bit off center.

I love animals. Actually, I love anything that walks, crawls, flies, or slithers, except rattlesnakes, which I'm convinced I could train to become a wonderful household pet or possibly a dreaded terrorist bodyguard. Anyway, I took Bear to the vet today for his annual feline wellness exam, rabies shot, and three year distemper booster. The vet said, "If you think you love all God's creatures, wait until you hear this one!"

One of Dr. Bratton's clients brought her parakeet in for a check up. It was a beautiful bright green and yellow male parakeet named Cranston. She had Cranston for six years and even taught him to say a few words. Unfortunately, he wasn't talking the day she was scheduled to bring him to the vet. In fact he wasn't doing much of anything except just laying around. She thought all Cranston needed was to be resuscitated. When she brought him in to see the doctor, her poor little feathered friend was deader than a door nail. In fact he had been in birdie heaven for quite some time.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So I did a little of both. Cranston was buried under the weeping cherry tree in her yard with a full funeral service. And that ain't no horse pucky.

7 comments:

lightly said...

firstly

"I love anything that walks, crawls, or flies, except rattlesnakes"
not one to point out the obvious but
rattlesnakes don't walk , crawl or fly therefore we just assumed you did not like snakes.
but i digress

as part of farm life we were sent on a 2 week "be the slave of the vet" training session.
and you see some strange things.
now the vet was scared of snakes and in the 2 weeks i was there we saw quite a few snakes.
on one occasion this young lad brought in a snake and said he thinks its dead, his mother was standing way way in the background because she was also scared.
we looked in the box and yes the snake was not moving, well snake skin don't move if snake not in skin. when we told the mother this she went white like a sheet because she just realized the snake was alive and well and a little bigger and it was roaming her house freely.
not sure how that ended but i'm sure someone was not going to sleep until the snake was found.

Pam Beers. said...

lightly: I added the word "slither" to my list of verbs.

Snakes shed their skin, so am I correct to assume that the young man brought in a snake skin thinking it was a snake?

Randy Johnson said...

This one reminds me of the classic Monty Python skit about the… Okay I won’t go there.

It also reminds me of a story a friend of mine tells about her very first animal rescue. As she tells it: “I came across a cat lying on the side of the road. It was obvious to me that the cat was hurt, so I did the only thing a 10 year old can do…..I placed the cat carefully into the basket on the front of my bike and rode home to my mom to get help ……My mom was so grossed out! …she wasn’t sure how to break it to me that the cat had been dead so long, rigor mortis had set in and there was nothing she could do.”

Well, that friend has been working in the animal care field all her adult life, and I’m glad to say with mostly better results.

....Poor Cranston :(

Pam Beers. said...

Randy: All in all, Cranston had a happy life. Thanks for the condolences.

I love your cat story. Good animal caretakers are always needed. But, what about the Monty Python skit?! Don't leave us in the lurch. I don't know that one.

Robert Crane said...

okay, true story. when keaton's daughter alix was six, she had a pet hamster called miss piggie. well, one morning miss piggy bit the dust and keaton, along with a sobbing daughter gave miss piggy a much deserved burial, matchstick box coffin and all. They dug a hole, placed miss piggy down and had a few parting words for the little girl before piling on the dirt.

now, normally this would have been very proper, given miss piggy's standing in the family and such. except miss piggy wasn't quite dead yet. she had simply bit some dust in the literal sense.

so she began running around inside her coffin to the shock and awe of the would be sorrowed.

long story short, miss piggy was quite alive and ready to get back to her wheel, to eventually die of true natural causes, a very patient and ill intentioned cat.

Randy Johnson said...

Sorry Pam. Growing up around British humor I sometimes forget that not everyone was a Monty Python fan. Here are two links to the famous “Parrot Sketch” by John Cleese & Michael Palin.

Click here for the original TV version, or here for the abridged live version.

By the way, if you’ve never seen the movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” you’ve missed one of the greatest comedies of all time. My wife would roll her eyes and say otherwise, but I did once catch her laughing at part of it (though she’ll never admit it.)

Pam Beers. said...

Bob: Oh,oh! Poor Miss Piggie met her demise at the paws of a cat. That's about as natural as it gets. Thanks for the great story!

Randy: I did see "MP and the Holy Grail." It is a hoot! I love British humor. It's been a while and my crotchety old brain cells have accumulated some rust, so I don't remember the details.

Will check out the parrot sketch. Thanks for the great comments.