Goodbye, Cindy Buttons
I can’t believe I’m writing this right now. I can’t believe little Cindy is really gone. But unfortunately she is.
On Monday evening, Cindy Buttons was running around the yard, full speed, chasing ducks and getting into mischief per usual. She even caught Lenora Bea and stomped on her a bit. As you may know, birds are very good at hiding illness, but not usually THAT good. Cindy must already have been laying eggs internally and I just didn’t notice.
On Tuesday morning at 6:30am, I got up to open the chicken coop so the hens could quietly forage in the aviary until a reasonable hour. Cindy didn’t rush out of the chicken coop like usual, so I thought “I’ll have to see if she’s not feeling well when the vet’s office opens, and take her in.”
When I got up at 9:30am she was off by herself standing still. That’s not like her at all, so I brought her inside and made an appointment for 3pm at the vet’s office.
At the vet’s office, she didn’t look good at all. And by the end of the exam and x-rays, she looked even worse, and wasn’t standing up anymore. They didn’t find a stuck egg though, so we just got her some strong antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and hoped she could improve on her own with a few doses. I gave her the first dose immediately, and woke up very early to give her a second dose. The plan was to see if she was improving within a day or so, and if not, have surgery on Friday to clean up her abdomen and spay her so she wouldn’t lay internally anymore.
Unfortunately that was not to be. Early this morning she was awake and alert and not panting, but she was still not comfortable. By 10am I could tell she was definitely not improving, so I rushed her back to the vet for emergency surgery. She died in the car on the way to the vet’s office. I was concerned that she wouldn’t be strong enough to survive surgery, but I never thought she would pass away on her own. I couldn’t believe it was happening. I kept telling her “Oh no, Cindy. Don’t go! You can beat this!” But she very quickly and very quietly sighed and breathed her last breath. She died about a block from the vet’s office.
I can’t believe this happened so fast. It’s hard to understand why such a bright light had to burn out so young. The vet is going to call us with definitive results on what caused her death, but whatever it was, it moved too fast or went unnoticed too long to save her, and I’m so, so sad right now.
I’m going to write up her sweet story and a proper farewell, but I’ll do that separately.
Damnit, Cindy… why did you have to go?? Who’s going to perch on my knee now?
I’m so sad.
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