Bad news.

The Pair-a-Tweeters have both died. It was really awful.

Yesterday, for no apparent reason, Blondie began to seem very lethargic. He puffed up in the classic "little feathered pine cone" look, and became unsteady on the perch. Just as I got up to get the phone book to call the vet, the poor thing fell over on the floor of the cage, dead.

I was shocked....

and it seemed like Dorothy Dagwood was too. She just sat up above on the perch watching with her head cocked. I reached in and picked him up, but he was already gone.

I was stunned, because Blondie was only 3 or 4 years old - that's nothing for a parakeet. Still, I thought that, since he was that beautiful soft yellow color, which is certainly a mutation, perhaps he just had a little parakeet stroke and died. Such a thing is not unknown.

Dorothy Dagwood seemed fine when we went to bed, though, sadly, she was contact calling for her missing mate for a long while before bed.

As I was getting ready to leave for work this morning, it was clear that Dorothy Dagwood was having the same kind of symptoms. The Hub kept an eye on her, and was cheered when she seemed to rally and she drank a little water (the same thing had fooled me the day before with Blondie). He brought out the heater, because she seemed cold, but not later than 2:00 in the afternoon, she was gone too.

We have no idea what could have happened. The Hub spent most of his time focusing on cleaning up the area, giving K-Bird's cage an extra-thorough cleaning.

Obviously, they caught some illness, but from where or from what is a huge mystery. The only thing we can think of is that maybe some kind of mold spore came in on some wood, or possibly their food became contaminated through dampness.

K-Bird seems fine so far, but we won't waste a minute taking her to the vet if she seems even a little down. She keeps looking around as if trying to find them, though.

It's REALLY quiet in here. I don't think I like it. We spent so much more time than we realized watching them chase each other around the cage, play with their toys, whistling at clicking at them. They were a huge part of our life. Now I look over to where they were both happily getting started on another destroy toy as late as Thursday and both of them, their cage and all, are gone.

The whole thing is too depressing for words. Who knew that birds so small could hold such a huge place in our hearts?