Remembering Sunny

Sunny was a yellow budgie who filled a quiet house with noise for nine years. He arrived in 2015 and immediately had opinions about everything, which he shared loudly, from first light until the cover went over his cage at night.

He learned to whistle the first line of a tune Irene could never quite place, said his own name with enormous pride, and would sidestep along his perch to be near whoever was in the room. He was happiest on a shoulder, chattering into an ear about nothing in particular.

He died quietly one morning in the winter, and the house has never been so silent. You do not realise how much sound one small bird makes until it stops. We miss the racket more than we could ever have imagined.