Suicidal Pets

There is a psychological epidemic that seems to be silently sweeping pet nation, and one that I am starting to really suspect.  Why haven't I read any reports of this yet, are the pet stores aware of this and keeping the information from the general public???

Last year sometime, my son got a fish named Walkie.  He seemed to really care about this cold, slimy little thing and I'm convinced Walkie knew and loved ME very much instead, as he always seemed to get excited to see me -- even if I was just walking past.  Anyway, we went on a trip out of town for just a few days, and when I came back I saw a really dark piece of what seemed like beef jerky lying on the carpet.  But no, it was Walky.  He had jumped out of his bowl during our absence...  Maybe he wanted to go with us?  (I did quickly replace Walkie without saying a thing to our kids, so as far as I know, the Walkie now is the only Walkie we ever had.  And don't anyone ruin that.

Then, just a few days ago, my daughter put her "Little Maria" mouse down on the table to she could get the other mouse (a not-so-smart move I had no idea my daughter had been practicing)  and Little Maria jumped off.  The next day, Little Maria had expired.  This was actually quite sad for our daughter, as we are not allowed to even mention Little Maria's death around our house.

And today, I get up to say good morning to our parakeet.  You guessed it, it's dead too.  Seemingly this bird, in some attempt at a poorly-calculated protest, emptied out his entire food bowl (it's all at the bottom of its cage) as soon as I put it down.  I didn't check on him yesterday, but I could hear him (he sounded fine) and said hi to him from far away.  So I don't know how long birds last without food, but his protest-through-fasting was successful for about 2 days.

Where are all the pet psychologists when you need them??