Ode to our Lovebird

Coming into our lives in 1992, Ginghi was just a fledgling from her parents, Herbie and Vanna. Dena named her Ginghi as it means red head in Hebrew. She was our first bird and we were probably bad parents, feeding her only seed her entire life. That never stopped her however, and Avian vets, bird stores, the birdie hotel and other birders always remarked that she was the oldest lovebird they had ever seen.

Ginghi was full of piss and vinegar right from the beginning and her first adventure was while her mom's were away vacationing in Hawaii. She was entrusted to the care of a dear friend and Ginghi bit her. Our friend freaked out, screamed and her big rottweiler picked Ginghi right out of mid air. Fortunately, the rottweiler was trained and a quick drop command and Ginghi was summarily spit out. Ginghi never missed a beat recovering quickly and none the worse for wear.

Several years ago she started to grow a tumor near her groin area. The tumor quickly got larger and grew to the size of a golf ball. Off to the Avian vet we went and the first vet said that since she was 16 years old she probably wouldn't live too much longer and we should put her down. Undaunted and unconvinced we got a second opinion and soon we were examining her x-rays. There is nothing funnier than seeing your little bird splayed out on film as the Avian vet says it took 4 vet techs to hold her down. The tumor was surgically removed and she didn't even need a cone. I was sort of looking forward to photographing my little cone head but the vet said she wasn't picking at it and was up and running around biting the vet tech minutes after the anesthesia wore off. Powerful females run in our family.

Ginghi had the personality the size of a Macaw, greeting us every morning with her whistles, guarding the house at night being a good watch birdie, she missed absolutely nothing. She enjoyed swinging in the sunlight during the warm summer days and the joy she brought to us will be sorely missed. She went out in a big way giving her mom Dena a last good hard love bite to remember her by.