Another One Bites the Dust

Helena parakeet is dead.  Dragonia and I went away for an overnight stay at a mountain resort to escape the horrors of Sealand and all the landlady stress, and when we came back the following morning, her body was lying in the bottom of the cage, very peacefully.  There was no obvious sign of a bacterial infection or other sickness (I cleaned the cage before we left), and no sign of distress or struggle.  They had plenty of food and water.  The temperature conditions in the apartment were undoubtedly hot, but shouldn’t have been any hotter than they were normally:  the cage was in the same room it usually is, in the same location, and the windows of that room were cracked.  So I have no idea what happened.  Nor ever will presumably.  I just have the usual dull, aching sadness that comes from feeling like I terminally failed something that was relying on me, and from wondering whether there would have been anything I could have done if I had been here.

Astrid parakeet seems to be OK.  I cleaned the cage thoroughly, turned the bedroom AC down so that it wasn’t too cold, and then brought her back in here.