In the beginning of September 2005 I saw Brunhilde for the first time. She was one of 43 birds who had been rescued from their former home which wasn't good for them. Many of these poor birds were seriously ill or even injured, so was Brunhilde. As one among may others, at first I could hardly notice her. Brunhilde's health status was quite good compared to the other birds, even though her feathers were covered with blood from head to toe due to her wounded leg.

Together with the other birds she arrived at an animal shelter and a group of animal activists to whom I belonged took care of them. For weeks I was looking after the budgies and during that time I became more and more familiar with each individual. Soon I noticed that Brunhilde whose wound healed quickly is a fearless and vivid bird. She managed to escape from her cage not only once and she was full of mischief all of the time. When I chastised her because she had for example dropped the food dish again she perched in an upright position and started to grumble, too. In these moments she seemed to be as lordly as a valkyrie from the Norse mythology.

This headstrong fluffy featherball was so amazing that I told other bird lovers about it. It was Ute Lanzrath who saw a photo of the bird and claimed this budgie lady looks like a "Brunhilde". That's how the bird got its name even though it was still living in quarantine. Several tests and health checks have been done which showed that many of the saved budgies suffered from an incurable disease called PBFD. Brunhilde was lucky, when she was tested the results were negative several times.

Long ago I had fallen in love with this amazing bird and therefore I decided to adopt it. On 11/18/2005 Brunhilde moved into another quarantine cage and she was checked by a vet again. He found out that she is as sound as a bell. Finally she became an official member of my flock in December 2005 after her long journey which started in her former home where she used to live under bad conditions. It didn't take her long to settle in and she made lots of new friends in my bird room.

Brunhilde was always amazing and she surprised me a lot after I adopted her. When I was caring for her in the animal shelter and she escaped from the cage she was unable to fly. We often found her walking on the floor unable to reach higher ground. Because I thought she was incapable of flight I wanted to give her a new home. I have already given a new home to several other disabled birds. When Brunhilde arrived here I found out that she in fact was able to fly and therefore she hovered through the air together with the other flock members who are able to fly. She soon fell in love with the womanizer Nik and led a wonderful relationship with him until the day she passed away.

After I had moved into my new home in the end of September 2006, Brunhilde was too quiet and I was sure that there was something wrong with her. Thus I brought her to an avian vet who examined her and found out that her glandular stomach was enormously enlarged which had happened due to a tumour (what we found out later). There was no way we could help her, this disease was incurable. The vet said as long as she doesn't suffer from pain we could let her live her life in my flock. It happened during the night. She started to become weaker and weaker and even fell off her branch. Pain made her shiver and she nestled to her husband Nik. I couldn't stand the thought she suffered from pain and therefore the next morning I brought her to a vet who put her down. This step was hard to take because I loved her so much. But in fact because of this love I owed her not to be egoistic and let her go.

It was quite hard for me to find out the name of the colour mutation of this cute budgie lady. In fact her colour was neither blue nor grey, it was mauve instead. The black-and-white drawings on her plumage made her a normal budgie.