On February 24 at 1:43pm, members of a Facebook group for cockatoo lovers awoke to an alarming message from fellow member, Sergii Antonov.  I'm sure many were as shocked as me to find out that one of "our own" lived in Kyiv, Ukraine.  I had to stare at the message for a bit to fully grasp what I was seeing.  Sergii and his Moluccan cockatoo, Roxy, were in a bomb shelter together.  I had just watched the beginnings of the horrible Russian invasion into the Ukraine on TV the night before with tears in my eyes along with everyone else in the world.  Surely this man is not speaking from the depths of a bomb shelter!  But he was and this suddenly became very real to all of us. This was not some video footage I was seeing of someone I didn't know in a land far, far away. This was happening live right before us.  And so the many loving members in the group, comprised of people from around the world, were quick to come to his and Roxy's aid with advice and comfort. 

           These are his messages that all began with a post that didn't lead off with a photo of  himself, nor of him with his cockatoo. It was just of his exotic bird, Princess Roxy;  the fragile soul was who he cared about most.  This spoke volumes to us.  The Ukrainian people have inspired the world not just with their patriotism, resolve and fight.  But with their humanity along with so many other attributes, including kindness and devotion to the innocents of the war: their pets and other animals living there.  And here before me was a living example one of the peoples' virtues.  We were not all speaking with just a survivor of war, but with one of the many admirable citizens that were sacrificing so much for each other and their pets.

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With that, I will give Sergii Antonov his deserved voice. These are his words and images.