Even King O welcomed me back! (Photo by Janet Holt Hilton)

When I got to Best Friends, it felt like I was coming back home. I’m so comfortable here and other than a few huge changes to the structures and appearance of the Parrot Garden for starters, I pretty much knew where everything was. It’s always a kick to see Jacque and Kevin but having Janet, Bonnie and Kelly there as well, it was as though different parts of my world were colliding.

Yesterday was pretty hectic. We had to pack up our stuff at the hotel and get over to BF because we had to attend a placement at Angels Nest of Spock, a little quaker that had passed two days before. Spock had extensive liver and heart damage due to thirty or so years of pretty much an all-seed diet. I could rant about that yet again, but I don’t have time. I was stunned at how respectful a placement is at Best Friends. There really is no difference between tucking one of these animals in and a funeral service for a human.

Paying our respects to Spock, a Quaker who deserved our respect.

Not the most uplifting way to begin our first day at BF, but it was a touching service nonetheless. Bonnie Grafton had not been to Angels Rest before yesterday and mentioned that when we turned into the area, the hair on her arms stood on end. Bonnie remarked, “Oh my God. The feeling…it’s almost palpable!”  She is right. The feeling you get when you go through the gates is simply shattering. We laid Spock to rest with a simple, yet respectful and touching service.

We placed our colorful stones on his marker as way of showing respect and remembrance and then I had other business to attend to. I had to place memory stones for other friends who could not make it here to place them for their well-loved birds. And I had to place one for Mattie, my dog.

I placed stones for my friends Ann Cordova, Amy Huq and others. They wanted me to do this for them and it was an honor to create the stones and place them.

And of course, I placed one for Mattie. I absolutely adored Mattie and it simple shredded me when she died. So I wanted to place a stone for her.

I used one of my heart stones I purchased in Haiti and did the best I could making it pretty:

It shredded me again. A pile of water. But I got it done. There is more, but I have to get to the Parrot Garden where I will continue posting and keeping everyone updated.

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