I don’t pass this along because I think it should have any special importance to anybody, but because I brought it up a few days ago. Sweetheart, Judy’s pet cockatiel of 22 years, died this afternoon. As she’s been doing for several weeks, Judy took Sweetheart to her office, and Sweetheart died there in her traveling cage. She was a trooper to the end. In one way, it was Sweetheart that brought Judy and me together. When she got Sweetheart, Judy had never owned a bird before, so she subscribed to a bird magazine to learn more about them. Before I wrote Wild Parrots, I had an article published in that magazine. Judy read it, and it interested her as a subject for a film. But at the time I wrote the article I thought I was about to move. I said so, so she didn’t bother to look me up. A few years later, when someone suggested that Judy do a film about me, she already knew what I was up to.
Sweetheart’s decline was gradual and without any major complications. She went peacefully. The house does feel different. There’s one less mind in the room now.