It was a very hard day for me at Sarvey, I picked up a hummingbird and a migrating juvenile snow goose from Renton Vet on my up to Granite Falls on a beautiful December morning….the sun was all sparkly, traffic was of course heavy on the 405, but I had a humming bird in my lap and a beautiful goose pecking away at the holding bin and watching me with big brown eyes, (one swelled with edema) as I drove down the highway…..
when I got to the center Freedom said hello, I brought in my injured friends, feeling happy to be where I felt so much love and to a place I have loved so many….I gave Sue her xmas present in the lounge, we were giggling together when Leslie came in with awful news, yes…….my little Angel, a raven I had bonded with intensely, like no bond I have know in my life to this point, had developed bumble foot, a problem when I first heard about it last summer made me laugh, the name atleast sounded so weird, but now I did not…..a complete sadness came over me, i’m not sure I want to share all the emotions and tears, it’s pretty much a blur the thoughts and feelings and visions, all my heart had felt from this tiny creature would end, it would destroy me, somehow something inside of me was dying……
The day was long, waiting with her in her cage, spending moments I thought would be lost in my dreams…waiting for dr. Kamaka to take her to the med room, look at her foot and tell me it was over…..
It was nearly 2pm and Dr. Kamaka arrived…..she examined 12 box turtles who are just so insanely cute you wouldn’t believe and then called for the Angel….Leslie picked her up and brought her in…..I tried to distract myself, by photographing a barred owl who lept from her cage and perched atop the songbird flights, she looked at me with her night black deep eyes, telling me that life goes on and is transferred into the world in amazing ways, I thought of my friend Kestrel and Sue who always reminded me of the importance of each day, of each moment in life, the luck we have and all animals do to live that one wild moment and if we get to then we have lived….and I thought about Angel and wondered when her wild moment would have been, when was she captured and then hoarded and then for how long? and then her healing process at the center, it’s been 2 years now, when did she have her wild moment? I knew she wouldn’t have it again. But she has given a few volunteers a lot of love that they will take with them forever, a secret that only they can cherish, and I am a chosen one.
So i’m photographing….and waiting……
Dr. Kamaka….”Annie Marie!”
I go into the med room in tears, there she is laying on her back covered in a towel, her foot exposed……..and healed!
her foot is wrapped in a large bandage, almost so she can’t walk, she is put back into her cage, such a beautiful girl. I love her so much, staring deeply at each other, I whisper my prayers to her and tell her what I really feel…..it’s an amazing feeling to divulge your soul to another….specially to a Raven named Angel.
