Thursday, May 03, 2007

$400 class on animal husbandry

My younger two daughters recently attended a class with Henry on animal husbandry. It lasted about two hours and included up close and detailed demonstrations. The class size ratio was one teacher and teacher’s aid for every 3 students. There was also a lab and homework. Twice a day, my husband and middle daughter would painstakingly complete the assignments. This program is available all over the country. It’s more commonly know as “A trip to the veterinary.”

After the initial trip to the veterinary with a sick parakeet, both bird looked to be making a good recovery. Lab work indicated that one of the birds tested position for two bacterial infections. About a week after starting on antibiotics the birds took a sudden turn for the worse. Surprisingly, the healthier bird passed away first, followed a few days later by the weaker.

In the beginning, I really didn’t like the birds. They were noisy and messy. I surprised myself by how sad I was when the first bird died. It wasn’t so much the loss of the bird, but that these two birds (brothers) were now separated. It seemed like the remaining bird was grieving. In a moment of weakness, I even contemplated becoming a vegetarian until my sister talked me out of it.

Now the birds are in a zip lock bag in the freezer. We will have a double funeral on Saturday. We will bury the birds, next to the pet rats which passed away two years ago.

---------------------------------------------------
Related Tags: , , , , ,

2 comments:

Alastriona, The Cats and Dogs said...

My condolences, we lost our cat March 9, 2007 because of the contaminated pet food so I know how sad all of you must be.

We are currently undertaking a class on parenting. We adopted two 4 week old kittens, whose Mother had died due to the contaminated pet food. They are now 7 weeks old.

Janine Cate said...

The loss of a pet can be a hard thing. I wonder how many pets were lost due to the contaminted pet food?