It’s the little things

So I have been doing better the last 48 hours or so with not dwelling as much on Tuki’s demise. However that changed after work.  We gave Tuki’s cage to Cindy’s ex-sister-in-law and niece since they have birds.    Having the cage out of my field view removed one large glaring reminder in the living space but at the same time it’s absence was also like a black hole in some ways.  Well tonight I was unloading the dishwasher and had the emotions kick back in which may seem like odd timing to most, unless you knew one of Tuki’s many quirks.

For some reason that will remain a mystery Tuki found the act of someone emptying the dishwasher extremely entertaining and enjoyable.  As you unload dishes he would say his name repeatedly in one of the many variations he could say (Tuk, Tuki, Tuki-Tuk, Tuk-Tuk).  He also would make some of his pleasant sounds instead of the bone chilling screech he was so fond of.  His absolute favorite part of the process was when the silverware went back in the drawers.  Perhaps the clinking noise was something he just liked for his own bird reasons.

Like I mentioned the other day, his contributions to the house environment were so established that it felt like they were woven into the very fabric of my day to day living experience.  I don’t want to overly embellish the relationship Tuki and I had personally because it was not great although we both learned to get along, more or less.

We used to have a hard time getting Tuki to go back into his cage at night but discovered that if I was the one to refill his water and food dishes he almost always would go back into his cage because he saw it as an opportunity to try to bite me as I pulled and reinserted his food crocks.  Most of the time it seemed like he was just acting like he wanted to attack me to establish dominance but a couple times he actually did bite me hard which I never reacted well to. He was always very fond of Alison and Cindy, letting them handle and pet him with far less consequence than if I would have tried it.  Hell he was more fond of pretty much every visitor we had to the house than he was of me.

I swear Tuki lived in a time vacuum.  He never seemed to look or act much differently from year one to year seventeen. He never had any health problems and likely would have lived for decades to come if not for my terrible judgement call which I will regret for a long time to come.