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    marye
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    Here's the place to talk about our departed loved ones -- friends, family members, tour buddies, and others we've lost along the way.

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  • marye
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    Ray Bradbury
    of Fahrenheit 451, but he also wrote the film script for Moby Dick, which I never knew. Wotta guy.
  • gratefaldean
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    I didn't make it
    To Merlefest this year (scheduling conflict), despite the nagging voice in the back of my head reminding me that Doc probably didn't have many years left. I should have listened to the voice. RIP Doctor Watson I presume. You made our world a better place.
  • Anna rRxia
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    RIP Dock
    Better late than never to the table -- one of the greats.
  • Sun King
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    remembering doc...
    i too just wanted to chime in on doc's passing. my first exposure to doc was on the nitty gritty dirt band's album, will the circle be unbroken. this timeless classic exposed me to an entire world of music, which i'm still hooked on to till this day. i was aware of the dead, but not until a few years later, and blues for allah, did i hear that 'other' element that, for me, is the dead. i guess i was in like 7th grade, and when i heard some of circle, i was mesmerized. it was my good fortune to have seen doc play live on many occasions, maybe as many as 10, including the doc and dawg tour with grissman. he was just one of my all-time favorites, and i am so glad he shared his unique talent with us. rip doc...
  • marye
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    one of the greats...
    that's for sure.
  • Oroboros
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    RIP 'Doc Watson' gentleman & extraordinary musician
    I first saw Doc at a Bluegrass Festival at Mole Lake, Wisconsen. Vassar Clements, John Hartford, Doc & Merle Watson, Lester Flatt Band, and many more, decades ago. But Doc's set seemed so special, Merle took his arm and led him to the chair in the middle of the stage. And then Doc & Merle led us all though a wonderful and intimate evening of music. Happy Trails, Doc. And thanks so much. http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-05-29/doc-watson-di… Doc Watson played the acoustic guitar with such pure precision that Bob Dylan once compared his picking to "water running." The folk-music icon, 89, died Tuesday, after a fall last week at his home in Deep Gap, N.C., and subsequent colon surgery. Blind from infancy, Watson grew up playing harmonica and a homemade banjo but learned guitar after his father bought him a $12 Stella acoustic when he was 13. Born Arthel Lane Watson, he picked up the nickname "Doc" at the suggestion of an audience member at a radio broadcast when he was in his teens. Though Watson was instrumental in developing the canon for 1960s folk musicians with his recordings of traditional tunes like Deep River Blues and Shady Grove, he didn't play just the music of the Appalachian Mountains. Before folklorist and musician Ralph Rinzler first recorded him backing old-time banjo player Clarence "Tom" Ashley in 1960, he worked with a local dance band, playing honky-tonk, rockabilly, pop and square-dance tunes. "His adaptations of fiddle tunes to the flattop guitar virtually reinvented the instrument's role in bluegrass," journalist John Milward wrote in liner notes for the 1999 compilation The Best of Doc Watson 1964-1968, which included Watson's versions of the Eddy Arnold country hit Tennessee Stud and Jimmie Rodgers' My Rough and Rowdy Ways. A master of both finger-picking and flat-picking styles, Watson was, along with Merle Travis and Chet Atkins, one of the most influential acoustic guitarists of the '50s and '60s. He played the 1963 and 1964 Newport Folk Festivals and became popular on the folk circuit, especially in New York and California. "He is single-handedly responsible for the extraordinary increase in acoustic flat-picking and finger-picking performance," Rinzler once wrote. "His flat-picking style has no precedent in early country music history." His appearance on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 Will the Circle Be Unbroken triple-album set took him to a wider audience, including fans of country, bluegrass and blues. "There may not be a serious, committed Baby Boomer alive who didn't at some point in his or her youth try to spend a few minutes at least trying to learn to pick a guitar like Doc Watson," President Bill Clinton said when presenting Watson his National Medal of the Arts in 1997. Watson also won seven Grammys over a 33-year period and received Grammy's lifetime achievement award in 2004. For many years, Watson toured with his son, Merle Watson, who died in a 1985 tractor accident. Merle's memory is honored by MerleFest, an annual North Carolina roots-music festival that the elder Watson hosted. Held on the last weekend in April since 1988, MerleFest draws more than 75,000 annually to Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, N.C.
  • noonie
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    a big warm hug to all who are
    a big warm hug to all who are mourning the loss of Texas
  • TigerLilly
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    oh how sad
    Like marye I am also sorry for your loss. It's soo hard to lose a beloved pet.
  • marye
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    so sorry for your loss
    congrats on 16 great years though...
  • boxorain21
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    He reminded me of the dancing bear.
    My lil' dog Texas passed away today. He was 16 years old, he remembered the old days. God bless and keep our animal friends. Let's cherish them in the present and the past. Thanks for letting me share my loss. Cheers fellow music lovers!
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Here's the place to talk about our departed loved ones -- friends, family members, tour buddies, and others we've lost along the way.
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16 years 2 months
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thinking of you and Nao peace
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17 years 3 months
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Wait a second, Nao your wife???Am speechless, and hoping I read that wrong. ********************************** Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge. Mark Twain
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16 years 10 months
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All best thoughts and +++vibes to you and Nao. Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.
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17 years 4 months
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grieving with you Joe. If it helps a little you have a big loving family here.
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17 years 4 months
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and condolences to you and yours. I can't imagine the heartache and shock. Ride the rough waves, brother, hope that gentler seas are ahead. Take care "....She sang a little while and then flew off" The Truth is realized in an instant, the act is practiced step by step.
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17 years 3 months
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We love you brother! Am utterly sad and and floored about your loss. Keeping you in my thoughts Joe. ********************************** Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge. Mark Twain
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I've always thought your Wife must be a very interesting person, with quite a tale to tell. So sorry Joe. Positive Vibes headed your way. "River gonna take me Sing me sweet and sleepy Sing me sweet and sleepy all the way back back home It's a far gone lullaby sung many years ago Mama, Mama many worlds I've come since I first left home Goin home, goin home by the waterside I will rest my bones Listen to the river sing sweet songs to rock my soul...' PEACE
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17 years 3 months
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(((((((Hugz))))))) You are in my thoughts!!! Peace & Love,Gigi xoxoxoxoxoxxo
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16 years 11 months
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I can`t begin to imagine what your going through. most positive beams to you Joe .
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am truly sadden at your loss, how devastating .peace and love beams for nao's journey. so sorry joe,big hug for you.
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16 years 7 months
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I'm sorry for your loss. It looks like Nao gave it all she had. I had a friend, after a battle with cancer and a slide into mental illness, end his own life three weeks ago. Our hearts go out to you. To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven. Peace
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thank yoou, everyone; means more than I can say. *** "for CC Joe and Nao grief like a snowbank melting to tears running through eyes down the windswept plains of the cheek streams rivulets rivers riptides away away all beyond the grave sea the great gray ocean listless and still away away all to the waterfall at the end of the world" -- Robert Hunter http://www.deadnetcentral.com/WebX?7@619.XGaqbSO6AKp.1@.4a858023/53296 as usual, Hunter's words speak volumes. thank you rh. **** all I can say now is thank you, everyone. it really, really means alot. ** thnkks, as always, Hunter, for the words; means more than I can possiblely hope to express. it'll be read at her service. love&peace.
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17 years 2 months
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sorry to hear of your loss many warm hugs to you.....
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17 years 4 months
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So saddened by your loss. My heart and thoughts are with you.
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16 years 4 months
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I'm so sorry and finding myself without many words. You will be in my thoughts and prayers. We'll all be sending you as much love as we possibly can.
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17 years 3 months
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This one comforts me alot, so will share with you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pudOFG5X6uA Hold on! Take comfort in your friends. ********************************** Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge. Mark Twain
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I know the place , CC Joe, from tears to salty oceans . But remember, some day , that even oceans have shores and are confined to a planet where even a lost coconut can find an island . May we all go safely on cosmic trails .
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17 years 5 months
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I am so sorry to hear this. Safe journey to your beloved old lady, and I join in the mass outpouring of love to you.
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17 years 4 months
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I am trying hard to think of words; just know, please know everyone here; your words mean a lot to me. thank you all. * you all knew her, you all danced with her and hugged her at the shows... she was never more impressed with spontaneous human warmth than at shows or meeting strangers on the road who shared a love of what we love. this community, online though it may be, is part of a larger tribe; we may not see each other's faces as we dance, eyes on the stage, we may not see each other's faces, eyes on the screen as our fingers dance on the keys; we may not 'hear' the words, the music drowns the voices out... but the warmth is here as it always was there; as it always will be there. Hunter's (thank's again rh, can't thank you enough) words were read, translated and read in Japanese, Thai, Lao, Khemer, Korean, Chinese, Tagalong, German, French, and also read in English. there could have been more languages, she had a wide circle of international friends, but I thought 10 readings had a certain symetry. Black Muddy River (maybe her favourite song) was played for her, and So Many Roads for us; and some other music she loved... people spoke, and heard some stories I never heard before... there could not be anythhing happy in this, but there was some dignity and people stronger than myself let me lean on them. parents should not have to attend the funeral of their child, an older brother and an older sister, and a younger sister should not have to go through this. her nieces and nephews... she and I never had kids of our own. she and I used to 'joke' and she always said she wanted to die first; I knew her love in that comment, but i still had to insist I wanted to die first for the same reasons I reckon. like everything else, she had her way. ( -; we also used to 'joke' based on some Woody Allen line, "I was the boss, and she was the decision maker" it was, I heard from the doctor, much too late to really do anything by the time she learned of the cancer. so yes, she was protecting us all with that decision to keep things to herself these past couple of months. her family is the only real family I ever had; completely loving people, completely caring people; unlike any I have ever known. her father was left an orphan by WWII American bombs; her mother, when she was a child, was literally shot at by a machine gun, dive bombing American plane as she was walking home with a friend through some rice fields after working at the war machine factory that so many children were conscripted into in that history -- yet, they accepted me, an ugly American, into their heart. our little house is about 3 hours away from their home; so we saw each other often enough, (or not often enough in retrospeck) they invited me to come live with them if I want to in the future; part of her ashes will remain in the family home, in the Buddhist tradition, some put into the family grave nearby. sad irony that her mother is a cancer survivor, and facing other health issues recently, all Nao wanted to do was help her family. there are things i must do -- will hit the road to scatter some of her ashes in some of the places she loved most. have to see and tell people she loved and who loved her, and have to walk up the trails of villages alone... some news can not be shared by phone or email. all she ever wanted and did was to help other people, less fortunate than herself; and that is her legacy. I'll do my best to continue her work; try to live her life, best I can. ** thank you all for all of your kindness. it means more than I can ever hope to express. prayers and positive vibes for her family is all I ask; parents should never have to attend the funeral of their child. (((DNC))) thank you. ** there are some roads we rode on together to re-visit, and other new roads I must face-- the ride can never be balanced without her on the back of the bike. love and peace.
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you've said it all.....my condolences........XOXOXO
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I am so sorry for your loss of your dear wife. Peace and love to you and her family. Take care of yourself. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake
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17 years 4 months
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I can't even imagine the sadness you feel. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. And the road goes on forever.... BobbaLee
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17 years 4 months
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I just can't imagine something like this. Our thoughts are with you.
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17 years 4 months
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thanks everybody. heading on the raod soon to take care of things; be back when I am able. meanwhile, please know how much this space and your support means to me. "so it’s broken hearts and dusty roads and somewhere there my soul explodes with every piece of every day and everything I meant to say and where I’ll be, no one can tell I’m fishing in a wishing well and i’m doing the very best I can I just hope you’ll understand now I seen all the lights that shine countless colors in my mind they climb and swim and spark and glow and ask me what it is I know I know a thing called love a thing called thunder in the sky above now I know a thing called pain now I know a thing called rain" --- Jackie Greene **** we was there together for this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObCXBkB_o1A "Will you have some tea At the theatre with me? We did it all - didn't we? Jumped every wall - instinctively Unravelled codes - ingeniously Wired all the roads - so seamlessly We made it work But one of us failed That makes it so sad A great dream derailed One of us gone One of us mad One of us, me All of us sad All of us sad - lean on my shoulder now The story is done - it's getting colder now A thousand songs - still smoulder now We played them as one - we're older now All of us sad All of us free Before we walk from the stage Two of us Will you have some tea? Will you have some tea At the theatre with me?" ---Pete Townshend *** thank you all. (((DNC))) LOVE&PEACE.
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may the roads you travle bring you peace. we`l all be here for you when you return.
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The Who Tea and Theater - very, very beautiful. I am sorry. Stay strong.! big love beams, too!
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17 years 4 months
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i know you are on the road right now, but i just heard the news and am very sorry for your loss. there are really no words to say, but know i am thinking of you and your wonderful wife. my deepest condolences friend nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile
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R.I.P.........1 of my best "sandbox buddies" when as teenagers we'd pile into my small car & run up to the Family Dog @ the Great Hwy, park & all places to hear the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver, Big Brother, Airplane....who else????......I can still hear your laugh XOXOmay the 4 winds blow you safely home.....
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I am so sorry for your loss. You guys sound like me and my sisters and a couple of friends, piled in the car heading to the city for another evening of music.... Usually the same people in the car and I bet the same for you, so I know how tight a friendship you are grieving. Take care & peace
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hugs and warm thoughts go out to gypsy cowgirl...as long as you keep pattie in your heart she is never really gone..HUUUUUUGS
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Thanks for your comments.......I tell her kids (now in their 30's) how we'd pile about 7 or 8 of us in my 5 seater 544 Volvo......nutty teenagers that we were-driving was safer 40 yrs ago-not as many freeways & cars, too.....RIP Pattie
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16 years 10 months
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i just got my 'puter back from repair, sorry to hear of your loss. my thoughts and prayers are with you and your friend.
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15 years 9 months
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God Bless- "I Want You To Roll Away The Dew"
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17 years 4 months
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how hard it is to lose friends along the way. many good wishes for Pattie wherever you are and for GC still here in this crazy old world oh and good to hear from you too johnman we were starting to worry about you greetings dear friends from the frozen steppes of Kazakhstan love to all CB
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17 years 2 months
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send me a postcard, though from where ever you are....I love foreign stamps.....thanks for all your comments........Pattie had a good life, that's all we can hope for everyone....xoxo
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17 years 4 months
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sorry for your loss, peace If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake
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17 years 2 months
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would be blown away by all these comments & condolences.....! she loved the Grateful Dead & we had so much fun together......should I mention now it was her coercing that I was to be the one to smuggle in the gallon of wine into the Fillmore West summer 1969?? I rarely drank, too.....teenaged wastelands.......
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17 years 4 months
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thank you still and always If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake
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16 years 10 months
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Founding member and guitarist extraordinaire of Big Brother and the Holding Company passes away from a heart attack on December 20, 2009. A post more eloquent and informed than I could craft can be found here. Another tragic loss of an icon of the generation. Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.
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...one record I will never forget, it's "Cheap Thrills". Long before I got into the Dead, who were an acquired taste, were Big Brother & the Holding Co. They could be full-on, into your face or get way down - and soooo bluesy - "Didn't I make you feel ..." And. of course, Mr. Gurley's guitar always led the way. Thank you. " Where does the time go? "
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17 years 3 months
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Thinking of you sis and missing you this Holiday season :(It's been 3 years and I miss you every minute of everyday!! Dance with Jerry <3
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17 years 4 months
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Thank you for the good times.
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I began my career in the grain business 6 weeks after the Continental Grain elevator blew up in Westwego, LA, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans.Grain dust is highly volatile, especially within confined space.
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Long Time Family member Danny Goldsher ,from Long Island NY. has passed on 12/23/2009He will be missed by many.
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A favorite winter-time activity at home in Kansas is feeding and watching the birds who visit any of the 4 feeders I have in the backyard. Before Christmas, I noticed a female cardinal without a tail. Needless to say, I think she's perished, as she has not been around for awhile. Perhaps the ever-increasing influx of mourning doves describes her fate? Stay tuned for more...