White doves,  the symbol of peace, love, purity, gentleness and innocence.

That was Lovey Dovey.   We got her in 1998 from a young man who had been homeschooled and she moved to our home with our homeschooler.  She came with a mate and we built a dovecot beside our house for them to live.  However, the dangers of the wild are fierce and one summer evening while they were sleeping a hawk reached through the wire with his talons and grabbed her mate. He had also grabbed at Lovey Dovey but she managed to escape; her wing was injured but she was alive.

We brought her inside and nursed her back.  Her injured wing would always hang down but she could still flutter about.  She had a perch she would sit on as the boy did his schoolwork and she always was eager to coo in converse with anyone who would participate. The boy was particularly good at “Dovey Language.”

As time passed and the boy grew we spent less time at home, so Lovey Dovey came to live at the office.

She was the calming force on many a tense day.  Everyone loved Lovey and would stop to say good morning or chat.  Over time everyone began to call her Birdie.

She loved the attention; people in the office would come and get her and let her sit at their desk while they worked.  She especially liked Howard.  Howard talked to her and even long after he retired, when he would come to visit Birdie would perk up at the sound of his voice.  It was love.

She was a fascination for children who would visit the office as she was so gentle; she would calmly rest on their fingers without a fuss and pose for photos with them.

Birdie had become the office mascot!

She was the star of a a video we produced for a Christian organization; as a symbol of God’s Peace.

Every year in November she would be posed in some elaborate photo shoot for the company’s  annual Thanksgiving card.  All in all she was a very good sport about it, although there were times things got a little crazy.  If someone had been taking pictures of me and Colleen as we cooed and tried to catch her attention to look this way or that, I am sure we would have made a comical video.

Birdie had been a little slow and quiet lately.  Getting on in years, she had been part of our family since 1998, but still last week she cooperated as we set her up for her annual photo shoot.

This morning we came in and it was apparent Lovey Dovey was going to leave us.  I picked her up and held her until she passed.

Even as she  passed there was a beauty and peace about her.  I imagined her flying up into a deep blue sky as if on her way to heaven.

She was all the things listed above and she was more; she was perfect.  Her wing was crippled, but she is soaring now.