As Tookie had "taken up residence" in a shoe box for his waning hours, and had remained there since his passing, it occurred to me to turn this into a casket/mortuary for the little fellow, and to have it filled with flowers ...
These were wonderfully fragrant, beautiful, and "soft", creating a sufficiently "cared for" final environment for our birdie friend, and with a final sprinkling of some morning glory seeds (Tookie's cage has been right next to an indoor morning glory plant for most of the past decade, and so now he himself may recycle into pretty flowers), a couple of notes tucked into the box, a bit of bubble pack, and farewell comments written on the outside, Tookie was finally ready to leave us.
I must say, Tookie, at age 12-ish (in a species that can live 15-18 years), certainly did the "die young and leave a good-looking corpse" thing ... as he was a beautiful birdie all the way. He will be missed.