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PlaxMacaws

plax blog (8/28/14)

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Remembering a Friend
Terrie Morris was an amazing lady! I met her on the Internet (in a parrot chatroom) and we quickly grew very close. She had two wonderfully beautiful Macaws. And that element was our initial commonality, since I had three Macs of my own. For years, and almost on a daily basis, we spent hours conversing and sharing our worlds. But it all ended when Terrie suddenly passed away on May 12, 2012

I've never met another human being like Terrie! We shared so many views on so many topics. We had parallel sensitivities and concerns about life, people, and the world. The profound love each of us possessed for our Macaws meshed very well between us. I can honestly say that I've never had a better human friend than she.

Terrie suffered from a lifelong blood clotting disorder, so she was on a permanent regimen of blood-thinning medications. She knew the risks involved, both from her illness and from the blood thinners she was forced to use. As such, she was terribly worried about Salsa's future because none of her family members were prepared to care for him in the event such became necessary. And that's why she turned to me. Terrie's other Macaw, a female Blue & Gold named Mango, already had the promise of a permanent home. It was planned that if the worst were to occur, Mango would go on to live with Terrie's husband. He had agreed to provide exclusive care for Mango in the event of Terrie's incapacitation or passing. Upon Terrie's death, and per her wish, Salsa was shipped to the west coast to live with me.

Terrie will forever live on within my heart... and Salsa will always be one of my dearly cherished companions. I know that Terrie is very much alive within Salsa's heart as well. Each and every day, I hear Terrie in his voice and I sense her very being in his personality. Sals learned so much from her... they shared an unbelievable bond that can never be duplicated. I truly adore that big red guy!

Bird Forums
Prior to Terrie's death, I had never been a member on a parrot-related forum website. As such, I would typically only converse with my close friends about my birds (with the exception that from time to time I interacted with certain bird enthusiasts on some of the Yahoo! discussion groups). My general experience with forum site message boards came through various memberships that I held at a few non-avian forum communities. As far as other online parrot discussion experience, however, I had as well created a small parrot-related live chat system on one of my own web servers. It was within that very chat system that I met Terrie, as well as another very good bird-loving friend of mine (who resides in Australia), Danielle Bamforth.

Naturally, when I acquired Salsa in June of 2012, I was feeling the immeasurable loss of my special friend, Terrie - and to an enormous degree! I was certainly missing our frequent conversations about life with our beloved Macaws. Salsa's arrival was a bittersweet thing for me... but it was one weighing heavily on the very sad side . At the time, it seemed that increasing my bird-related interactions with folks online might help me cope a bit better. I felt it would be nice to become involved communicating with people who adored having parrots in their lives as much as I do, so I joined a couple of pet bird forum sites.

The parrot forum site where I ended up spending much of my online time turned out to be a double-edged sword (as it were). I made friends and felt generally accepted by the community there for a time. But the situation came to an abrupt halt once I challenged some unsafe bird practices that were being endorsed by certain members. I ultimately became banned from the website after I, and one of the site's own staff members, took it upon ourselves to create Precisely Parrots. Our main motivation to create a new parrot-related forum website was to promote bird safety practices among our new community, since management personnel at many of the existing pet bird forum sites tended not to treat this sorely needed protocol, or their obligation to implement and maintain it, as a priority.

More to come...
Categories
Birds & Friends

Comments

  1. kendrafitz's Avatar
    Wonderful tribute to what sounds like a wonderful lady. Salsa certainly shows what a loving home he had with her and now with you.
  2. plax's Avatar
    Thanks Kendra!

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