There are no more agitated chattering in the morning, no more shredded carrots, no more dinging bells. Athena died Tuesday night; she was around 14 years old which is twice as long as her age expectancy. We don't know exactly what happened. I took her to the vet Tuesday to have them draw fluid from her abdomen which was swelling due to liver disease. It is a stressful event, but she seemed to be handling it when I went to pick her up after work. I hated to leave her, but when I brought her in, the vet had gone to the doctor himself. My only other option was to bring her back Thursday. Being sick, I knew the less travel the better for her, so since I was already there, I left her.

On the way home she was on her perch in the cage trying to recover. We had to go to the pharmacy to get a laxative mixture the vet thought would help keep the fluid from building up so quickly. The ride home was a little rough. I hit a pothole and heard Athena fall off her perch. I looked back and she was just sitting there on the bottom of the cage heaving. This was not good, but I thought everything would be ok. It had been a rough day for her.

After I got her home, I picked her up and put her on the bottom perch thinking she would eventually climb up to her usual spot at the top. A little while later I found her back on the bottom of the cage. That is never where you want to see a bird. She was just sitting there struggling to breathe. Fearing an imminent death, I placed her at the top of the cage, hoping she would calm down. The cage was covered and I turned on the lamp next to her cage to add some warmth. While we were watching TV, I heard her back in the bottom of the cage moving the corn cob. I don't know if she fell down or climbed down.

Before we went to bed, I checked in on her to see how she was doing. Unfortunately, she died during the evening. I don't know if the fall did some internal damage or if draining just took too much of her strength to fight. It looked like her abdomen may have ruptured, but this could have happened during a fall. All that we know for sure is that she lived an extremely long life and was well taken care of. She is very missed, but she is much happier now and has new playmates to be with.