Today I attended a small funeral for a friend of mine, it was very informal with only four people in attendance, there were no Cadillac hearses or flower cars or priests saying stock words from some many times rehearsed eulogy (insert deceased’s name here), just a few heartfelt words spoken by someone who knew and cared about her and many internal thoughts.

She was just a young girl and I hadn’t known her that long, but she was sweet, outgoing and a regular part of my life nearly every saturday and sunday for the last two years. Something very different about this funeral for me was that I’d held this little girl’s still warm body in my arms when we found her and we tried to recuscitate her, at first with hope, then in desperation and finally to no avail, she was gone, I looked around the room and saw the faces, some whom knew her and some that didn’t, all filled with confusion and anguish, as I’m sure mine was too.

It’s been a strange day, and tomorrow will be another strange day, as it will mark the first day since she was born that the sun will rise without little Edie walking this earth, I know that sounds morbid but, thinking of it that way has always been my way of putting someone’s life to rest. Now I’m reflecting on the day and although I’m sad, I’m able to see something to be thankful for, and that something is veganism….

You see, Edie was a chicken, someone that would have been a commodity to most people, yet thanks to our vegan lifestyle she was an individual, a someone and not a something, a living being with a personality all her own, In fact she was part of one of the lasting memories of my very first visit to the Woodstock farm animal sanctuary, she was a “free roamer” and she along with Peanut butter, Hettie, and Rocky were perched on and around the huge pigs the first time I’d seen them, she was the last of those four, she was Edie, and she was my friend, she’s gone and I’ll miss her, but I won’t forget her or the other three and neither will the rest of her friends, she was a good girl.

So tonight I’ll sit here and be happy that I’ve learned the things that I’ve learned, the things that have made me a vegan and opened me up to meeting and appreciating others, like little Edie, and I’ll try and wrap my mind around the fact that 9,000,000,000 other chickens will be killed this year in the USA for absolutely no reason, all of whom are individuals, all of whom have distinct personalities, all of whom will never get the opportunity to be known for who they are like Edie did, because they won’t make their way to a farm animal sanctuary or into the hands of some other caring individual who will appreciate them and give them a good place to live their lives out……..

Do the right thing, don’t be a scumbag who kills and eats my would be friends, GO VEGAN and meet some new friends that you’ll never forget.

I never saw you, but I know you.                                                                                                              I never touched you, but I feel you.                                                                                            I never met you, but I miss you.                                                                                                I know you’re gone, but I won’t forget you.                                                                                I couldn’t save you, but I fought for you.                                                                                   I am an Animal Defender and always will be..