Friday, June 10, 2005

Goodbye, Dharma

Last evening when I was out for tennis lesson (which was postponed in the end due to cloudy sky and drizzle, so my friends and I had dinner instead), Dharma made further flying attempts. It flew to the back of the TV in the living room and Dad was worried that it would get electrocuted with all the wires behind and managed to fish Dharma out. When my parents were having their dinner, Dharma flew onto Dad's lap and gave Dad a shock. After feeding Dharma around 8pm, my parents covered the top of Dharma's house, so that it couldn't fly out. I reach home before 11pm and Dharma quickly flew to my shoulder when I removed the cover. I fed it before I put it back to its house. I put Dharma and its house in my bedroom (as I had done since the day I brought it home). It somehow knew it was time to sleep and didn't make much noise.

This morning, I can sense the restlessness in Dharma when I put it and its house in the balcony. After I fed it for the last time, Dharma flew on top of my head. Mum and I decided to bring Dharma down to the small park just in front of our block. It was around 9am. I gently placed Dharma in a paper bag. Mum and I took the lift (we stay on the 11th floor) and at the park, we walked towards some nice looking trees. I opened the paper bag and Dharma flew to my shoulder. I placed it on my hand and it flew onto my head. I put Dharma on my pointer finger again and after looking around for a short while, it flew towards this tree a few metres away. Mum and I couldn't find it on any of the branches. Dharma must have realised that he is not only able to fly from the balcony to the other rooms or see the world from my shoulder or head but the sky is the limit.

We saw a smaller mynah flying with 2 other adult mynahs and wonder if that was Dharma flying with them. I feel a little sad but I'm glad that my baby prefers freedom to captivity. We hope Dharma could make new friends and survive well in the big world out there. Take care, Dharma!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh, this is so sad yet of course it's the right thing to do. Birds need the sky like we need the ground. Sucha lovely experience for your family. Thanks for sharing. We've all been touched I'm sure. Parting is such sweet sorrow...

coboypb said...

Thanks for reading. It has been an experience for me and my family. The first time we had birds as pets was many years back when my parents bought some chicks with dyed feathers of pink, purple, green but they didn't last long. It will be too cruel to cage Dharma up and I hope its short stay with us is the beginning of its wonderful life journey :)

Nausicaa said...

I remember those chicks, think I saw them at a PPD fair. Don't realy like the idea of dyeing animal's fur. Doesn't sound healthy.

coboypb said...

yeah, i agree dyeing the fur of the animals is unnatural, unnecessary and cruel. The dyed feathered chicks' life-span might have lessen due to the dyeing process.