"Well you all just heard about all the ways Taylor was an absolutely wonderful human being...we've heard many descriptions of his academic prowess, sense of humor, caring nature and all-around awesomeness, but I'm here to talk about Taylor the animal-lover.

"We live on a large, mostly forested, farm property in Vermont. Like many small children, he enjoyed running with his dogs through the fields, laser-pointering with his cats, and riding his horses. The first day we moved to this property, Taylor spotted a bear in our lower field! In the years following he spotted more bear, moose, bobcat, turkeys, and hawks. Winter tracking of these animals in snow was always a fun pastime for him.

"He went to a camp at the VT Institute of Natural Science for a week-long birds-of-prey class, where he learned about local hawks and owls -- their markings, their calls, their habitats, and what they ate. At home he would constantly inform us of which calls were eminating from which birds. To his delight, he even got to handle some of them at the camp. On a recent trip to Ireland, we visited a falconry school where he was able to again hold some of his old "friends."

"At age five, Taylor found himself on a beach in Mexico with goggles and a snorkle and absolutely no apprehension about walking straight into the water to find whatever creatures were in-store for him to discover. He didn't get far because I remember him being in just two feet of water and having a school of small-plate-sized fish swirling around him, swimming in a torrent, flying out of the water; he was in a tornado of fish and so loving it!

"A couple of years ago, the four of us travelled to Scotland and Taylor spent nearly an hour on the cliffs of Staffa, laying next to and communicating with the puffins; he adored them! He noted the interactions between the humans, the seagulls and the puffins; he had an insatiable desire to understand more fully, the natural world. In fact, well before the crazy world of international conflicts, politics and diplomacy grabbed his attention, he thought he'd become a biologist. He truly was a naturalist and environmentalist at heart. He gave of himself, both in time and in financial support, for habitat preservation for his beloved animals.

"Last fall our travels took us to Glacier National Park to celebrate his 25th birthday. He said he wanted to see the glaciers before they disappear. The very first day of the trip, we hiked 12 miles to a high elevation glacial lake and on the way saw a mama moose with her babies, mountain goats and bighorn sheep. Taylor was on cloud nine!

"Of late, he would make an annual pilgrimage to visit the South African penguins and Arctic belugas at the Mystic Aquarium. When he moved to Baltimore, in 2017, one of the first things he noted to me was that there were no penguins at "his" aquarium. Penguins were always his favorite.

"For the year preceding Taylor's deployment to Germany, he spent about half of his weekend days volunteering at the Baltimore Zoo. He was involved with their youth outreach and educational programs. He was trained to be an animal handler -- standing in a setting where school children could come up to him and examine the snakes or tortoises that he would be "handling." He would call me to report whom he had held that day -- be it Elvis the python (who happened to be female), or Victor the hog-nosed snake. I remember he said that Elvis really would look into his eyes and that the two of them could communicate in some way.

"I was fortunate enough to have gotten to visit Taylor just three weeks before we lost him. His apartment in Stuttgart was adjacent to a public park with a zoo in it. Of course, he visited it often and brought me there. There was a pair of snow leopards that you could watch right from the park. The wallpaper on his computer has been a snow leopard for years; now he could walk to the neighborhood park and "visit" with a couple.

"But I'm really standing before you to tell this last story, above all others. In the summer of 2012, Taylor worked for the Obama campaign in Pittsburgh. He often went on runs or long walks through the city. Pittsburgh is really hilly. One day, he ran to the top of a hill and leaned on a high fence to rest. All of a sudden, a long trunk came from behind that fence and wrapped itself around his body completely! I imagine he thought he had died and gone to some magical animal heaven, of sorts. He was so grateful for that experience...and all I wish now is that I could be that elephant mom, giving him that huge hug, right here, right now, and forever more."