The work I have done on this audiobook has been a sacred trust. What I call “my first family” pets – my dog Yoko, and two parakeets, Max and Buff, died within the span of two years time. Max left us five months before Yoko departed, and Buff stayed until the “new family of pets” were securely in place. The depth of feeling I experienced in losing my dear companions was profound. I found myself writing poetry to cope with Yoko’s absence.

One year after Yoko’s death, I gathered together a small group of friends, all of whom had lost pets in the last several years. I read the poetry I had written to music composed by my friend, Marcos Estebez, a San Francisco musician and actor. After the reading, my friends shared their memories of the pets they had lost. It was shortly after this memorial service that I began work on the audiobook to address the subject of pet loss. I wanted to create the feel of speaking personally to the listener, knowing how upset and disoriented I had felt when I lost Yoko. To assist listeners with time for reflection of their own memories and feelings, I have built breaks into the audio at the end of subject sections signaled by Marcos Estebez’s beautiful music and my topic summary.

- Deborah Antinori