I am sorry to share that the Bright Stars family has lost Jack Crifasi, beloved human of Bright Star Fauci.
Jack was a much loved member of the Berner community in the Maryland area, and his absence has been — and will be — deeply felt. Heartfelt condolences to his family, and especially his wife, Maria.
Jack’s unexpected death triggered a remarkable display of love for Jack and Maria, and a real-life example of the power of community — with Fauci as the conduit.
Maria let me know right away that their wish was for Fauci to come back to me, his breeder.
Fauci was Orion
And so began a series of conversations that involved so many people willing to help as we tried to figure out how to get Fauci from Maryland to Boise with the least amount of stress and trauma.
Tricia, owner of Ferguson, sire of the Bright Stars, was ready and able to help. Ellen Miller, dear friend of Jack, offered to help. Pat Long weighed in. Lillian Ostermiller, an amazingly kind force of nature, was instrumental in working with me, Jan Burgan, and Maria to come up with our least awful option for getting Fauci across the country: a direct flight from Washington DC to Portland, Oregon.
I spent hours and hours on the phone with all concerned and Alaska Airlines trying to put the pieces together. We had a minor snafu when UPS lost the crate I purchased for Fauci’s travels and we had to delay his departure by five days. The crate company, Pet-Express, could not have been better to work with — they quickly shipped another crate and made sure it arrived at Jan Burgan’s house in plenty of time.
Yesterday was the day.
In the mid-afternoon Jan and her husband picked up Fauci and took him and his new giant crate to the Reagan National Washington DC airport. SO MUCH GRATITUDE to Jan and her husband!!
Meanwhile in Boise, I settled Pozy at home with her personal dog sitter and took Capella to spend the night with some of her favorite humans, Kira and Jay, and her brother, Atlas.
And then Starry G and I started driving — it is seven hours to the Portland airport from my house.
Fauci’s flight was scheduled to arrive at 8:15 pm PST (9:15 Boise time 😵💫). To minimize additional stress on Fauci, I decided to get us home as quickly as possible BUT I am not a late night person. After much thought about how to handle this, I begged another favor. Jennifer Graffunder, who lives along the way (4+ hours from Portland), agreed to go with me even though she is also not a night owl. Spoiler alert: We managed to stay awake — and we solved all the world’s problems along the way!
Alaska Airlines was great — Fauci was off the plane and with us thirty minutes after landing.
The crate is Boise State colors!
They loaded the crate (with Fauci) right into the van.
We gave him water and a cheeseburger and drove safely but quickly back to Jennifer’s house, arriving at 1 am. After a nap, we were on the road again to Boise (sans Jennifer).
When we got home, Starry and Uncle Fauci had a romp in the yard to get acquainted
Then Fauci and I went to Kira and Jay’s house to get Capella — that went just fine.
And then back home where the siblings, Fauci and Capella, crashed next to each other, both worn out from all the adventures of the past 24 hours 💙🩷
I believe Jack would be so grateful to all the wonderful people who came together to take care of his beloved Fauci 💙
Thank you to everyone involved for not only getting Fauci safely to Boise but also for reflecting what is amazingly wonderful about community.
There will be more to Fauci’s story but for now, he gets to chill with his family and I invite you to rest your heart and mind on Jack and Maria, and the goodness of humans.