by Melissa Sudbery
In 1990 I was in a "lonely" marriage. As many people do, I looked for love "substitutes" through my pets. This was how I came to purchase a previously owned, wild-caught timneh African grey parrot. "Dweeb" was a beatiful, intelligent bird and I couldn't live with that awful name so I named her "Buddy" which quickly became "Bud." Bud was extremely tame even though she had been taken from the wilds of Africa. Her previous owner had worked with her a LOT and in all the time I had her, I never knew her to bite. She was being sold because he had to move to a place where no pets were allowed.
I brought Bud home to our apartment and she settled right in. My (then) husband tolerated her well enough, but he didn't really care about my pets. (I had a few smaller birds as well.) Bud became my true buddy, remaining by my side when my husband left me for another woman and when my father died a year later. When I met my current husband a few years later, she adored him and he adored her immediately. We all moved four times - the longest trip being from Arkansas to Florida. Through it all, Bud was a trooper, always adapting, always "queen" of our little flock. :)
Last year (2002) on Veteran's Day, my husband couldn't sleep. He was surfing the Internet at 4:00 am when he heard a noise that didn't sound "right." He went to investigate and as he looked at Bud's cage, he saw her there laying on her back, unconscious and breathing very hard. He ran to wake me up. When I got to her I picked her up but she was still unconscious. I kept talking to her, praying for her to wake up and be ok. After about 5 minutes, she roused a little, made eye contact with me, gave me a loving look and closed her eyes and died in my arms. She was only about 18 years old and it isn't uncommon for greys to live till age 40 or 50. Bud apparently suffered a stroke or a heart attack - nothing could have prevented it.
I still can't think about it without crying. She was so much more to me than "just a pet". For the longest time, it was just the two of us, along with my Amazon parrot ("Aurora") and a precious little rescue dog ("Niki"). Ironically, Niki died just a few months before Bud, so I pray that he met her at the Rainbow Bridge. In my mind and my heart, they are both there in Heaven, along with my dad, my former mother-in-law, and my husband's father. And someday when my time on Earth is done, I'll be met not only by my human loved ones, but also by my animal pals. It's a comfort to know I won't enter Heaven alone, and that when I see Bud again, this time it will be FOREVER.
For Bud, my constant companion from 1990 to 2002. She lives forever in my heart.