RIP Rosko

After we got back home around 1:15 PM, Trudy noticed Rosko down on the floor of his cage. He was laying down. I scooped him up and held him against my body for warmth. He had his eyes closed but he was still alive. I held him like that for about 45 minutes. He nipped me gently and fluttered his wings and then he was gone. We had Rosko since 1990 so he was 24 years and 4 months old. He had been acting strange the last 3 or 4 days. He wouldn't settle down when he was covered up for the night and he stayed all fluffed up and always wanted to be near a heat source. He was an old bird and loved the heat. He was our watch bird. When anyone drive up to the house, Rosko would sound the alarm. I could hear him when I came home and walked up the ramp.

 Rosko was originally Frank's bird. We picked out an egg and when it hatched and got old enough to go home with us, he was ours, but as time went on and Frank wanted a larger Amazon bird, Rosko had to take a back seat to the blue fronted Amazon that we got. She is our talker.

He was a nanday conure. A dark to medium color green with a black beak and cap on his head - not a literal cap- but the front part of his head was black. He had beautiful olive green eyes. His stockings on his legs were red and the feathers around his vent were red. He was a handsome bird of small to medium size. He wasn't a talker even though he learned to say the name of my daughter, Mary Kate. She  would be studying and he would say, "Mary Kate, Mary Kate" and she would say, "What?" back to him, then he learned to say, "Mary Kate", "What!" He liked the same toys in his cage and didn't take to new ones very well.

I picked up Trudy at her house at 7 AM and we drove into Huntsville and got to the VA office at 7:45. The office didn't open until 8 AM but it is a first come, first served place. We were 3rd in line. The man, Harley, helped us in that I think we will get some funds to help out with the sitter that comes M-W-F so I can go to exercise and shopping or whatever else I want to do. Plus, we found out that Frank, even though he didn't fight in Viet Nam, he served during time of war and would be able to stay in a VA nursing home. We had heard that the VA nursing home in H'ville was open only to combat vets. Trudy came back home with us and will stay until Saturday. Tomorrow, we both have visit to the pain clinic. Frank at 11:15 AM and Trudy at 1:15 PM. I don't know what we will do with the "in between time".