Hi Lee,
Thanks so much for the kind words...they are appreciated greatly.
38 years is a life time, but still one that ended far too soon. I'm so very sorry to see that you lost your Sun Conure after such a short time, I hope you have since found a new feathered face to love. I am in the process of looking for a new grey face to love. I have been trying the rescue communities, and while fully vetted for adoption by one group I was sent home empty handed; for reason I won't mention here. Am hopeful that it won't be too much longer before that just perfect Grey spirit finds its way into my home and my heart.
Peaches, the Sun Conure, taught me a lot! (He was completely blind and nobody picked up on it except me; because he was so high functioning.) I had gotten him from my local parrot rescue. On my next visit to the rescue, after Peaches passed, there was a Peach-fronted Conure, with an Elizabethan collar, because he was plucking and self mutilating. A couple volunteers had tried to help him, without success. I brought him (Milton) home, took him to my avian vet, worked with an avian behaviorist, got him some Conure pals, (same-genus, as his species is seemingly uncommon--actually, his Brown-throated buddies are fairly uncommon, too). Milton is living a pretty good life here for just over three years now. He and his pals have my Florida room as an aviary.
I wish you the best of luck getting your next psittacine companion. My first parrot, Grady, is a TAG. He is such a character. I've had him 4 1/2 years. He is said to be about 22 years old (but it's hard to know as he was rehomed many times). I cannot image a day in my life without Grady.