Horrible discovery in the flower bed

Look what I found in my flower bed today:




    

That’s a little parrot (lovebird), isn’t it?

I’m shocked! Who would just throw a little bird like that away???

I’ve buried the poor little thing now.

Love, Marlies

Oh dear, poor thing. Maybe it had run away from somewhere?

Marlies, it doesn’t necessarily mean it was thrown away—a little cage bird like that can escape in the blink of an eye, and then it can’t find its way back and either starves to death or gets attacked by other wild animals and fatally injured. That’s what happened to one of my daughters with her cockatiel—it was gone in a flash and was never seen again.

Love, Inge

Sure, a bird can sometimes escape. But when I hear, “Of course we got rid of our birds when the little one was born,” it makes my hair stand on end.
This little creature was already completely dried out.
I also think it’s awful when my neighbor praises her cat for killing squirrels and little bunnies.

Yes, Marlies, I absolutely agree with you. It makes me really sad, too, when I hear something like that.

For example, I always scold the neighbor’s cat when she goes after birds. She really respects me.

Well, that’s just cat nature. I find it at least as cruel to let cats roam freely in downtown Cologne—because it’s “so natural”—since there’s always a new one to replace them when they end up run over somewhere.
Out here, most free-roaming cats wear bells, and aside from a tiny mouse once, I haven’t found any victims yet.
But I do think there have been far fewer birds in recent years, though I don’t believe that’s solely because of the cats.

Oh Marlies, that really is a terrible find, unfortunately. Poor birds! Today seems to be a bad day in general—our neighbors found a dead cat (run over) in their yard; it probably dragged itself there with its last ounce of strength :-(

At least you gave the little one a nice final resting place....

Best regards, Sonja

....I guess there’s now a “lovebird” sitting all alone in a cage somewhere.
  I used to have zebra finches myself; they were often “out and about.” One time I didn’t keep a close enough eye on them, and whoosh—they were outside. They always wanted to get back inside really quickly, though.
My two cats are free-roaming, without bells—they’re supposed to catch mice around here. That’s their job; we live in a very “rural” area—there are only three houses in the immediate vicinity, and the village is two kilometers away......Birds or even rabbits aren’t really on my cats’ menu... Mice are plentiful here and also easier to catch. I can always tell from the blackbird’s squawking which direction my cat is heading 😁—that way, all the other birds are warned, too.