Fly with the angels now, Pierre.

When I was little, I had a bird. She hung from a cage in the middle of my room. One night I thought I would leave my window open. It was winter. I was a really weird little girl and I remember thinking.."I will be remembered as The Girl Who Sleeps in the Winter With Her Window Open." I think I had just watched 'Dancing With Wolves' and was thinking of Wind in his Hair. In the morning I found my bird with her feathers puffed up in the corner of her cage. My sister Mandi put her on the heater to bring her back to life. It didn't work. Now I am remembered as the idiot sister who left the window open in the winter and killed our pet bird--of about 2 weeks.

This Christmas Aubri gave me a bird as a surprise for Christmas! Misti named him Pierre. He was a good little guy. He got sick about 10 days ago. We had been diligently nursing him to health. Keeping him under warm lights, feeding him with a dropper. I finally decided to take him to the vet. They gave him a shot of fluids. He looked real bad. They rushed him back to get him on "oxygen," then sadly walked out and said "he's gone."

So I invited over his best friends. We lit candles and wrapped him up and put him in a box.

Then we paraded out to the garden and dug a little grave while his favorite song was playing.

Brian said, "fly with the angels now, Pierre." And we put some flowers on his grave.

We will miss him. He was sweet.