I didn’t know that squirrel, but it seemed too sad that its life ended in the middle of a street without anyone stopping to say goodbye. 🥹
It all began in 2019, when Amanda Stronza found a dead squirrel in downtown Austin, Texas. Instead of walking on, she decided to surround its tiny body with flowers and pinecones, creating a kind of funeral for an animal she had never known.
What began as a spontaneous gesture ended up becoming something much bigger.
Since then, Amanda has created small monuments for dozens of animals she finds dead on the roads. Porcupines, skunks, coyotes, turtles, armadillos, and snakes have received their own farewells, surrounded by flowers, leaves, and other elements of nature.
And behind all of this is a very special intention. Amanda explains that she wants us to stop seeing these animals as mere bodies abandoned on the road and start recognizing that each one had a life of its own.
“My intention is to pay attention to animals, honor them, and see them as individuals. I want to recognize the lives they had and lost”, she explained.
Her small monuments will disappear over time, but thanks to her photographs, even those animals no one knew will have a farewell that someone can remember. ❤️
