Zena

Yesterday I had to say goodbye to an old friend. Her name was Zena and she was a starling who had been with our family for seventeen years. She was an amazing bird who brought a great deal of joy to me and my family and she will be greatly missed.

When I was a kid, there were a lot of starlings living around my dad's house. Every spring they would build nests in the trees and the eaves of the house and fill them up with babies. Almost every year the nests would get too crowded and some of the babies would be knocked out. When we would find the stranded birds we would take them into the house and hand feed them until they were grown enough to be set free.

One year though, when the bird we were caring for was almost grown, we started to wonder if our care had prepared her for life on her own. We wondered if birds just naturally knew how to take care of themselves or if that was something that was taught by mother birds. We started to doubt whether we had done the right thing by raising all of those babies and then sending them out to fend for themselves. The more we thought about it the more afraid we were to let this bird go the way we had with the others. We decided that the best thing to do would be to keep her. We named her Zena.

The longer we had her the more we realized what a remarkable creature she was. She was very friendly and incredibly intelligent. Though we were not aware of this at the time, starlings have been known to learn to talk. We did not discover this fact until Zena suddenly began talking. Though she did not talk as much in the last few years, there was a time when she had quite a vocabulary. Much of her speech was clearer than any parrots I have heard and she also seemed to know how to use many of the words in context, such as "take your bath" when she saw us bringing her fresh water.

We would also hear her communicating with the other starlings outside, who would come to the window to talk to her. This made us doubt our decision to keep her inside. Finally we decided that, whatever might happen, the best thing was to set her free. Unfortunately, by then it was too late. She had become accustomed to living with us and when we tried to let her outside she refused to leave. So until two days ago she lived with us. Yesterday, I took her back to my dads house, where she first came into our lives, and buried her.

Saying goodbye to her was very hard for several reason. She had been a part of my life for a very long time, and I think she helped me to become the person I am today. She was the first to show me how wrong people can be about animals. Many people think of starlings as pests and almost no one would think of them as being as intelligent and amazing as Zena was. She taught me that, despite many humans' best efforts, animals can overcome our ideas of them to be truly remarkable beings. This is a lesson I have not forgotten. Many other animals have shown me this over the years, but Zena will always be the first.

My feelings and beliefs about animals have changed a great deal since we first rescued Zena, and I now feel a great deal of guilt for the way she lived. I don't believe that animals are ever meant to live in cages and the fact that Zena spent her life that way makes me very sad. I feel honored to have known her, and I am happy that she had such a long life but I still wonder if we did the right thing for her all those years ago.

Zena touched the lives and, hopefully, opened the minds of every person who ever set foot in our house. I only hope that by writing this blog I have allowed her to be a part of a few more lives. Thank you Zena. I hope you know that you were, and are, loved.