Skyler's Memorial Page

wav file saying Hello Skyler

Best viewed with a budgie tag

pretty little blue and white parakeet
My little cutiepie! What a precious little bundle he is! I know Skyler is male, because his cere (the area around his nose-holes) is almost purplish in color. Male budgies have a blue to purple cere, and females have shades of tan.

Skyler's back view - beautiful markings on his wings.
I just love that little white patch on the back of his head. Aren't his wings beautifully marked?

little white and blue parakeet in his new, white cage
Isn't he tiny inside this cage? And I was worried it wouldn't be big enough. He weighed in at 31 grams his first day.

We had high hopes for him to be an excellent talker, though we'd love him just as much if we never heared more than a few chirps out of him. In the video, Parrots, Look Who's Talking, there is a budgie who has fantastic speech.

Skyler's first video!

Skyler's side view

The Budgerigar, (Melopsittacus undulatus), is commonly called a "budgie" or a "parakeet". Budgies are a popular pet bird from Australia. They are one of the smallest members of the parrot family, and are about 6-8 inches long. A budgie has an average lifespan of 10-20 years. Although budgies come in only one color in the wild (green), domestic budgies have been bred in a wide variety of colors and patterns.

Visit one of Skyler's favorite perches,
Lots of Budgie pix!
Wikipedia Budgie Color Genetics
Budgie Talk.Com

Here's a great little blue, animated Budgie cursor for your desktop to download. It's adorable! To download it, right click on the link, choose "save link as" and it should show up for you as parakeet.ani. Then you save it to your hard drive, and go into Windows, and choose it as your pointer.


Send a Spirit Flower!

Our precious little Skyler died last night, 8/1/99, of a lung abcess. We didn't know he was ill, as he hid it masterfully. When I held him yesterday, he was active, alert and looked as normal. We left the house and came home some hours later, and Skyler was in the bottom of his cage, stiff and cold. We were horrified.

This morning we took Skyler to our vet, who let us know what was wrong with him. He thinks Skyler didn't suffer too much, and that at the end, it happened quickly. We will be bringing Skyler back home today, and burying him under a tree in our back yard. I've ordered a little stone to mark his final resting place.

Little Skyler was not in our lives for very long, but he was deeply in our hearts. He will not be forgotten nor will he ever be unloved.

I have placed a memorial for Skyler at Virtual Memorial Gardens and at the Rainbow Bridge. This page is very long, though mostly text, and takes awhile to load. It is in alphabetical order. Also at the Rainbow Bridge, is a candlelight ceremony with Skyler listed.

If you'd like to help keep Skyler's memory alive, please apply for his award:
Skyler's Memorial Award.

Here is where I ordered Skyler's stone marker from. This site has hundreds of choices of memorial items for pets.

Isn't it a beautiful stone?
memorial stone for Skyler

This is the tree we buried him under.
tree in our backyard with Skyler's stone underneath

This is a beautiful story that I came across recently, and had to add it to Skyler's page.

Rites of Passage

Some of the most poignant moments I spend as a veterinarian are those spent with my clients assisting the transition of my animal patients from this world to the next. When living becomes a burden, whether from pain or loss of normal functions, I can help a family by ensuring that their beloved pet has an easy passing. Making this final decision is painful, and I have often felt powerless to comfort the grieving owners.

That was before I met Shane.

I had been called to examine a ten-year-old blue heeler named Belker who had developed a serious health problem. The dog's owners - Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane - were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer.

I told the family there were no miracles left for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home. As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for the four-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt Shane could learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, "I know why." Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me - I'd never heard a more comforting explanation.

He said, "Everybody is born so that they can learn how to live a good life - like loving everybody and being nice, right?" The four-year-old continued, "Well, animals already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

By Robin Downing, D.V.M.
from Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul
Copyright 1998 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marty Becker and Carol Kline

This is Boomer, Skyler's friend at the Rainbow Bridge. Boomer looked a lot like Skyler, we think. His owner, Jean, and I are internet friends. When I lost my little Skyler, she assured me that Boomer was taking care of Skyler at the Bridge.

photo of a blue and white budgie in an outdoor cage

This next picture is of Boomer, again, with his love, Doodles. Doodles was so despondent when Boomer died that she had trouble adjusting to life without him. During the process, she bonded with another bird who belongs to a good friend of Jean's, so now little Doodles lives with Terry.

bright yellow budgie with a blue and white one

These next two photos are of Thurman, Jean's beloved cockatiel, who died unexpectedly, just a few days after Skyler.

grey cockatiel sitting on a wicker basket cockatiel sitting on an old fashioned phone

More sad news. Cracker, a beloved companion of Jean and Art, had to be put to sleep this month. (Feb, 2000). Cracker had a mysterious, rare intestinal disease which no one was able to diagnose for sure and finally, out of love, Art and Jean made the decision to end Cracker's suffering. He is missed dearly by his family and friends. We know that Cracker is now helping to watch over all our little lost ones at the Rainbow Bridge. We will put up a better picture of this gorgeous bird as soon as possible.

pretty green mini macaw holding his foot up

Mini macaw

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Most recent revision October 20th, 2007.