08 December 2008

You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you.


A Parrot for Juan Gris, Joseph Cornell

My oldest friend in the world and I were having a very emotional conversation about animals the other night. I was snuggling Teepee, he was stuck in the netherworld that is Miami this time of year. Excepting the sun and beach, I clearly was the luckier one at the time of said conversation. He told me about this obituary he had read in the New York Times, about Alex, a parrot with a 100 word vocabulary, who's last words before his death at the age of 31 were, "You be good, see you tomorrow. I love you." Heartbreaking. And, aren't parrots supposed to live forever and have to be bequeathed to unsuspecting heirs in wills? Why did the special guy have to go so young?

I was then obliged to spend quite a while on Koko.org. Koko was a childhood obsession of mine. Her response to grief and witnessing the death of one of her trainers, Mike, is also, heartbreaking.

Conclusion: Jezebel, easily, readily, unabashedly moved to tears by all creatures, great and small.

5 comments:

  1. Oh my! The story of Alex is beautiful and beyond heartbreaking.

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  2. I'm formally stealing this story for my blog, sorry, jezebel ;).

    We used to have a parrot that could do some of the linguistic stuff. The goodbye message is just too much...

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  3. My stolen article is your stolen stolen article, dearest.

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  4. What a touching story. I have totally had to rethink my view of all animals, especially after watching the video of the dog pulling another from the freeway.

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    ReplyDelete

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