Sincere thanks to other pet owners for their support.

My sincere thanks to all who sent messages of support following my blog about Whisper. Your thoughtfulness was greatly appreciated. Too, I agree with those who said that a pet is like a family member - how true! I never thought I would miss my little Whisper as much as I do but these are the cycles of life.

On Saturday Whisper was buried with five feathery family members. Kiwi and Sweet Pea had been companions to Whisper for a while. They were pet shop bought (and I don't encourage anyone to purchase a bird from a pet store). Kiwi was not well when I got him and died a few months later. Sweet Pea had some kind of nervous/twitching of his head. the pet store replaced Kiwi with Sweet Pea when I complained that I'd had him such a short while. I kept both of them because I knew I could give them good care while they were with us.

Cadie came to live with us a few years ago. Our daughter and son-in-law had two Cockatiels and the female had a large clutch. Too many for Cadie to live with and she looked terrible with all those larger birds around her so our daughter asked if I would take her since Cadie and Whisper always got a long so well. These days Cadie keeps calling out and looking for Whisper...

Tommy is another Cocaktiel that belonged to our daughter and Tweety is a Canary. They are also buried with all of the Parakeets so Whisper has lots of company ;o)

In our thirty-five years of marriage we have had three dogs: Princess (a mix Border Collie and Shelty), Benji (a Poodle - rescued from the dog pound) and Punky (a Shitzu-Poodle mix). Punky live 15 years.

Of course that is in addition to the two dogs and two Parakeets my family had when I was growing up. My mother loved animals so she instilled that love in me as I was growing up.... PLUS Gold Fish!

So again, thank you for your support. Each and every pet holds a special place in our heart and our hearts are made greater for having cared for them.

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Today's blog was nothing like what I intended it to be until I checked on my parakeet Whisper who had been ailing for a while. Whisper is the keet on the left of the photo above. Cadie is the other wonderful bird.

Our daughters and son-in-law gave Whisper to me for my birthday about ten years ago. He looked like a baby eagle the way his head was shaped at six weeks of age. I didn't know what to name him but he was always so very quiet that I dubbed him "Whisper". He has always been true to the name to the very end.

I felt from the beginning that there was a special relationship between Whisper and me. He used to just love to sit on my shoulder and when there he would chirp sweetly in my ear. I taught him "hide and seek" and he was so good at playing that.

You can tell that I loved this little blue Whisper - he was a pet in the truest sense of that word.

Well my little Whisper passed away around 9:48 this morning - he was a real fighter until he could not longer fight. I miss him already and I really did not mind getting up 3 or 4 times during the night to check on him so as to keep him as comfortable as possible. Since last week, he could no longer stand on his perch. When that happened a week ago, he would let me wrap him in soft towels to keep him warm ever so content to lay on my lap and sleep. That is how we spent all of last Sunday. I even brought him along with me to sit Theo on Monday so I could monitor him. He seemed to be doing better until this morning when he was now so weak he could barely move.

He is now in a nice little box and he will be buried in our yard under the Rose of Sharon.

To some, he may have just been a bird - to me he was "my Whisper" - a true pet. Though I will miss him I know he now has no discomfort and I like to think he is in "birdie heaven".

Rest well my little Whisper - you've been the very best!

Love... "Mama"