May 14, 1997
Newone came to be with our family in the fall of 1994. We picked her up at a small pet shop - attracted to her bright sunshiney yellow plumage and sweet disposition. Once we got her home she stepped right on our fingers and ate from our hands. She was accepted immediately by the rest of our 'flock'. We started out calling her the 'New One' until we could figure out an appropriate name. It stuck. Even though we added 2 more budgies and 2 cockatiels after her, Newone she remained.Starting in the fall of 1996 we noticed she was not grasping perches with her right foot so we took her into the vet. Unfortunately the vet had bad news. Newone had a cancerous tumor which was pushing against one of her nerves which was why she was loosing feeling in her foot and not grasping perches. There was nothing we could do to help her; it was only a matter of how long she would survive. We moved her into the cockatiel cage with Tinker and Belle because they were less aggressive and we knew that Newone would eventually be needing a calmer atmosphere.
She became pretty good friends with the tiels... She made it her life-goal to pester Tinker as much as she could, and she became Belle's personal head scratcher. She had two favorite perches, her mirror swing, and on top the cage looking into the reflection off a piece of framed art. She played, ate, sang, and climbed - never an unhappy moment did she seem to have. If it weren't for the now very visible tumor sticking out of her side, you would never know she wasn't a perfectly healthy and happy budgie. We came home last Saturday evening and turned on the lights to wake them up, but Newone never woke up. She had climbed down the bottom of the cage and tucked herself into the corner as if to shield the tiels from having to see her die. We buried her just off the walking path around the lake close to where we live and sprinkled the top of her gravesite with seeds. For the last few days Belle has been looking around the cage for Newone, even chirping softly for her. We all miss her...
