It's a sad day in the Terpfan1980 household as we lost a beloved pet today.

Quite a while back (long before a bunch of spammers came along here offering deals on DirecTV or Dish Network) I wrote an article or two about some of the family pets including a wonderful little green cheek conure that the family had named Jules bird.

He had picked up that name because of his apparent intelligence and curiousity, with the Jules name being a variant of Jules Vern the author of so much fame.

Jules bird was quite the character, with the white rings around his eyes, and a playful nature.  He loved to come out of his cage and sit and visit with the family.  He'd walk along the back of the couch going from person to person to visit and see what we had in hand, or what we were wearing that he could nip at and play with.  He also loved to sit on my daughter's shoulders and play in her hair, flinging it around as if he was a hair dresser.

We don't know for sure what made him sick, but my wife called me at work today to tell me that he did seem sick and seemed as if he wasn't going to make it very long.  Sadly enough her prediction was right as he came out of his cage, sat on my daughter's shoulder and refused to move from there.  Within a short period of time he apparently let out a bit of a death scream and passed away.  He hadn't been injured, and up until the last 24 hours (give or take) hadn't shown any signs of being ill.

Somewhere last evening I perhaps should have noticed that he wasn't his usual noisey and chipper self.  He didn't squawk and chirp as normally would, but I didn't really notice that.  This morning he also wasn't as noisey as he normally would be in demanding that his food be served.  He did come down and enjoy his morning treat (he loved to eat a fruit loop every morning), so I didn't notice a problem then.  Later in the late morning/early afternoon when my wife called me at work and told me he seemed to be sick, it started to sink in that he wasn't as well as I had thought at first.

My family is going to miss our little friend greatly.  He was a part of the family and had been from the day he came home approximately 5 years back.

Goodbye Jules bird.