Why Otis Died

A little over a year ago, my pet cockatiel, Otis, passed away. Otis and I had only known each other for a couple of years (I was his 3rd owner), and he was quite a neurotic bird, already quite damaged by living in so many different locales with so many different owners.

I still wondered exactly why Otis died, though. He had plenty of food and plenty of water. I cleaned his cage out regularly and took him out to play with him often. He wasn’t super old or anything… So what, exactly, did Otis die of? I feel like I have now discovered the answer…

My alarm clock.

Yesterday I came home from being away for a day, plopped down on my bed to go to sleep and realized that my alarm was still set for the insanely early hour I had woken up a few days before. But when you turn my alarm off, instead of disabling itself entirely, it just reset itself for the next morning.

So what happens when my alarm clock goes off and no one is around to hear it? (A tree falls in the forest?) It goes off for AN HOUR and then turns itself off.

After thinking about this for a while, I realized that I left home a lot during the time Otis was at my house. Then I put myself in Otis’ shoes, and have come to the conclusion that Otis died from excessive alarm clock buzzing. (yeah, it’s a pretty annoying alarm clock)

R-I-P, Mr. Otis.