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| Barbara and Anna |
It was an ordinary day. Looking at the Christmas email greeting from Barbara Cannegieter I just received from the island of Sint Maarten. This past October my wife Carol and I visited the island and made a stop at the home of Barbara and Dee whom we got to know about five years ago. During our visit we were greeted by a shrill voice that belonged to Anna. Anna is a white cockatoo that had been gifted to the St. Maarten Zoo a few years ago. Then in September of 2017 Hurricane Irma made a visit to the island and totally devastated the island as well as destroying the zoo. Eventually Barbara was able to adopt Anna who is a wonderful greeter who constantly reminded us of her name by screaming "Anna". Many years before the hurricane arrived in 2017, a young boy by the name of Drew Vogelsang volunteered at the Sint Marten Zoo. At this point in my story I would like to insert a story sent to me by Barbara telling about a recent visitor she had to her home to see her as well as Anna. The story was an email received by Barbara and was written by Rita Ennis. Enjoy the story as I did and see just how compassionate we humans can be when the need occurs.
The email written by Rita Ennis to Barbara Cannegieter:
We are in Sint Maarten where the Vogelsang/Ennis/Evans families have spent 20+ Christmas seasons. "We" this time includes Ellie and her BFF Marina, Drew, Joanne (Bob's sister), her husband Randy and me. We always have at least one activity while here that becomes a family legend. The first such activity this year is a visit Drew and I paid to Anna, a white cockatoo. There's a backstory here. As I said, we've been here many times. Most years since he was 12, Drew skipped some of the beach activity and volunteered at the Sint Maarten Zoo. It was a very small, distinctive home to about 300 animals, a very low-key, easy to visit, almost shabby-but-lovely little park and kid's recreation area. Some of the animals were endangered. For such a small zoo, the collection was impressive. Some animals (peacocks, large turtles) roamed freely, giving the zoo a special accessible vibe. Each animal was named, known by many locals and greatly appreciated for its characteristics and personality. One resident was Anna, a sweet or nasty (depending on whether she liked you or not) white cockatoo, who had been gifted to the zoo by her previous owner, a woman. Drew heard Anna liked women much better than men, but mostly didn't like people, and had bitten several visitor fingers over the years. Undaunted, Drew worked to make friends with her, and the relationship became mutual adoration. While he never entered her cage, Anna mashed her body up against her cage bars so Drew could rub her belly, under her wings and under her neck.
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| Anna sitting on Drew's arm. |
Anna clearly recognized Drew each year when he returned. Bob and I visited Drew at the Zoo while he was working a few times and witnessed and photographed the love between these two. Some of you may remember photos we posted 4 and 6 years ago. Drew last saw Anna in 2014. As most of you know, Sint Maarten was devastated by Hurricane Irma in September 2017. The Zoo was totally destroyed. Some animals escaped, some were stolen, some lost their lives to storm fright or the caiman who got loose. The animals that remained were moved to the Curacao Zoo or re-homed to zoo volunteers. We were heartbroken about the condition of Sint Maarten and the Zoo. I tried but was unable to find out about Anna, and resigned myself to never knowing her fate. Fast forward to last Thursday. While finalizing some vacation prep details, on a lark I googled "Sint Maarten Zoo Irma Anna" and up came a May 2018 blog post by a Sint Maarten resident, Barbara Cannegieter saying she had taken in Anna. I was thrilled to know Anna was safe and loved. Caribstorm is the blog, and I've read from it many times over the years as author Barbara commented on Sint Maarten and its weather, and occasional other topics. Though I didn't know her and had never had any exchanges through blog comments, I emailed Barbara explaining Drew's relationship to Anna and asked if he could visit Anna. Barbara replied with a gracious invitation. Today we visited Anna, Barbara, and her husband Diederick. We had a lovely time getting acquainted, and Drew had a wonderful reunion. We can't say that Anna remembered Drew, but she liked him and recognized him as a gentle friend. She allowed him to enter her spacious cage, and climbed on his arm. It was a great visit -- meaningful to all of us. The whole thing seemed like a little miracle. And now we have new friends in Sint Maarten, friends we will surely visit again.
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| Carol visits with Dee and Barbara in Dee's garden. |
As you can see, Barbara is a national treasure for the island of Sint Maarten. Carol and I are so lucky to have met her a few years ago and to be able to make yearly visits with she and her husband Dee. We look forward to our visit in 2019 and hope we can once again hear that shrill voice calling "Anna" to us as we ring the bell at the gate. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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