From being days away from death to loving every day
We adopted Dotty a year ago from a bird rescue after she was surrendered due to the death of her owner. She was very ill and we were warned she mightn’t have long left but we took her determined that even if she only had a short time with us we would give her a calm, loving, and dignified end. She had come from a home where she was very neglected and at our initial meeting with her she just seemed defeated and exceptionally sad, weary, and wary—this was a bird quite literally stuck in fight/flight mode (pun not intended). We got her to a vet pretty quickly and discovered she had sustained several fractures in both wings that were left untreated which just seems so unfathomably cruel and as a result her muscles have atrophied to a point she can no longer hold her wings up so they sit, drooping, on the ground which obviously causes her even more issues particularly around balance, comfort, and pain. Significantly, she was in severe, almost end stage, liver and kidney disease. We’ve worked closely with a vet for the last 12 months to get her back into good health physically and mentally. Despite this awful 13 years of life, this sweet sweet old lady has slowly accepted the love we’re offering and in a state of pure bravery on her part has extended her trust to us.
Still working to lessen some trauma-based behaviour, notably eating her own poop because I think she’s experienced times where that was all that was available to eat. She is slowly becoming less panicked when we take her food bowl for refreshing each morning, something that stressed her out to an extreme level for many months. She knows now that new, fresh food is coming and rather than panicking that her food bowl has been taken she now waits patiently at the cage door for her breakfast.
The first pic is a before and after and possibly the photo that feels most polarising; its hard remembering how poorly she was when she first came to us but seeing how her colouration (and therefore overall health) has gone from that toxic neon yellow to a beautiful yellowy grey feels like such an achievement. Her eyes look less weary and wary and we see more glimmers of attempted happiness every day. She’s still working through some issues but she is so exceptionally trusting and I’ll be forever grateful she has allowed us the opportunity to let her relax and feel safe. That in itself has been a huge privilege to be gifted by this sweet old lady who was very hardened to life just one year ago.
The last two pics are Dotty playing with her first keyboard which was a 1 year anniversary gift she got today. It took almost a year for her to show any interest in toys because I’m not sure she ever had any so for her to take an interest and play is heartwarming to see.