We never told Z that Ozzie died. She had never paid any attention to the bird so we really wondered if she would even notice that he wasn’t around. He sat in the middle of the house and made lots of noise so you’d think that his abscence would be obvious. But she never noticed.
We went to my parents’ this weekend for belated Christmas. One of my uncles left a present for Z. It was a fake parrot that is motion activated. It yells at you when you walk past it. My mother said, “It is appropriate for you guys now that Ozzie is gone.”
Z spun around and looked at me. “Where did Ozzie go?”
The SO said, “College.”
On the way home we explained the truth to her. She started wailing, “I miss him!!” I turned around and reminded her that she didn’t even notice he was gone. She admitted that it was a good point and quit crying.
