the passing of Pear

It's a sad fact of life that we outlive the pets that we love. Tonight Pear, Zoo Boy's first "just his" pet, passed away. Although we only had her for 3 years (she joined our family in August of 2007 at about 2 1/2 years old), that's a significant chunk of 7 yr old Zoo Boy's life and he doesn't really remember not having her. She was the start of his first entrepreneurial venture, breeding her and selling her babies to save up money to buy his Cockatiel. We lovingly referred to her as the "little blue chicken," because she laid so many eggs. That egg-laying propensity was what ultimately got her in trouble -- she became egg-bound at the beginning of this week, due to an egg that was just too large for her to physically pass, and though she initially survived the treatment, she ultimately succumbed due to the debilitated state it put her in.

Zoo Boy and J made her a shroud and we held a twilight burial. The Boy was too sad to talk, but J shared some memories and well-wishes, and The Map Man and I talked about the things we liked about Pear. I reminded the boys that her beauty and spirit lives on in her children, which several homeschooling families enjoy in their own homes, as well as the hundreds of families who visit the local children's museum where we donated three of them, where they continue to delight visitors.

Zoo Boy chose a lovely piece of white quartz for her grave-marker and said that he'd like to mark it with a "W" because that's the first initial in our last name. (BTW, I'm open to suggestions in how to go about doing that -- if anyone knows how to permanently mark a hunk of quartz, leave me a comment!!) He also picked out the burial location, which is at the edge of the "blue" section of our rainbow garden, since she was a blue parakeet. He really conducted himself a very mature manner -- appropriately sad, but conscious of what to do to give himself the closure he needed. It was a good funeral.

The delphiniums overlooking the grave, a fitting tribute to the passing of an all-around nice first pet.

Even Cosmo dropped by to pay his respects: