Message from a Departed Friend

Some years back, my family took in an African Grey parrot, whom we named Ruby. She had been relinquished by a previous owner that understood her frequent long bouts of business travel left Ruby lonely. The veterinarian thought that Ruby had liver disease when we got her, and we tried the organic milk thistle seeds they recommended, but she consistently refused them. She died a few years later. We had her about nine years and felt her loss acutely. She brought a peaceful energy to our home and was known to speak context-appropriately.

A few months after she passed, I had an animal communication session with her, and her words surprised me and brought tears to my eyes. It seems almost too personal to share here, but I wanted to reassure my many blogging friends who do so much for their companion animals that the companions get more out of it than we ever thought, far beyond the food and companionship. I’ll refer to myself here by my blogging name, peacewithmylife, or PWML for short.

PWML: Ruby, what happened? We were so shocked to find you had passed.

Ruby: I tried to tell you that I couldn’t stay, but you didn’t understand. Don’t fret. I am fine where I am now. I just wanted to … tell you thank you for showing me a different way to be in a family. I didn’t take advantage of it as much as I could have, but you didn’t pressure me to do more than I felt comfortable with. Thank you, for that. Tell [your husband] that I appreciate his time with me and being my special friend.  I enjoyed sitting on his shoulder and hanging out with him. He liked me, and I enjoyed knowing a man could be this way.

Thank you all for seeing me as the nurturing, loving soul that I am. I don’t know if I will reincarnate in this way again or not. Be a domestic bird or not. But this opportunity gave me many things to think about. Not just the programs [I watched] on TV, but the way you all lived together, each one different but all liking or loving the others. The different people, dogs, cats, sugar gliders, all of them had an accepted place in your home. You loved them all, PWML, and I want to be special like that, too.

PWML: I don’t think I was special just because I loved them all. Am I so different?

Ruby: Yes. Think about that for a while tonight. You loved us all. Fed us, paid for the food, the doctors, and the bedding we all needed. You have shown a great capacity to love, and I want to be that way too. When we were naughty, you accepted us and loved us anyway. That is special.

And with that, Ruby departed.

I still miss Ruby, and I hope that she has found peace and perhaps eventually, another life, in the great adventure beyond this one.