Remus' first therapy job

Last weekend Remus did his first unofficial therapy dog visit. 

Two of my co-workers, Carrie and Deana, had invited him over to their apartment for dinner and a movie. That morning their rat, Irwinian Smithsonian Vandercoupe II, passed away. I asked them if they wanted to cancel dinner, but they still wanted him to visit. 

So visit we did. I figured at the very least he may be able to help cheer them up a little bit. I think he did a pretty good job as this video will show:

http://youtu.be/mZDD-MqF9rg 

Deana completely fell in love with Remus. Going so far as to invite his drooly presence onto her bed so she could cuddle him more. 

And yes, that is Lord of the Rings playing on the TV. 

 He also tried to play with their surviving rat Barker, who seemed only mildly interested in Remus. He even earned a new nickname while there: Remus Falkorian Shadowfax. 

 

Remus meet Barker

Making himself right at home

Enjoying the second story balcony view

Deana invited him onto the bed even though he drooled all over the comforter.

He loved it out on the balcony.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience for everyone. And despite his drool, jumping on/off the couch and his constant need to go out on the balcony and back inside every five minutes he has been invited back. Probably because he manages to make people so happy despite anything else by just looking at them with his big brown puppy eyes.

Sammi

The worst thing about owning a pet is suffering the loss of that pet. Today we lost Sammi, our Blue Front Amazon. He was 5 years old. We don't know why he died. We've speculated a host of possible causes, but we just don't know. We considered a necropsy but decided against it. Knowing what killed him would not bring him back or make it easier to cope with his death. If it was something contagious to the other birds, then it's too late to prevent exposure since we had no warning of Sammi's illness. He was sick one day and gone before the next morning. We only pray it hasn't passed to the others.

We only had 5 years with Sammi, but those 5 years were filled with singing and dancing. Literally. He started out by dancing to Queens of the Stone Age "No One Knows" and eventually learned most of the words to "Peanut Butter Jelly Time", which was his favorite song. We were working on the theme song to Ghostbusters and had gotten as far as "who you gonna call." We'll miss him asking "what you do?" whenever we walked into the room or greeting you with an enthusiastically shouted "HI!" when he hadn't seen us all day. His uncanny comedic timing of phrases will never be forgotten. Nor how he'd look at you with his slow black eyes and long lashes as he said "I love you." The intelligence in those eyes convincing you that he knew what he was saying and meant it.