Today’s Return of the Nut celebration will include a tribute to the late Nestor P. Cat, who served as Keeper of the Nut in 2008.
In a statement released this morning, Malinda L. Hamster, president of the Small Animal Hibernating Community (SAHC), said the short tribute would recognize “Nestor’s importance to our community in particular, his important scientific and poetic contributions in general, and his great love of The Park.”
The tribute will occur a few minutes after 2017 Keeper of the Nut Sunniva Muldvarp returns the symbolic Nut to the hibernating community and swears the ancient oath that it was “kept from harm and preserved intact.”
As part of the tribute, The Park’s Official Hibernation Ambassador, Hieronymous Hedgehog, will read one of Nestor’s most famous poems, “A Poem of Love Inspired by Water.”
The Return of the Nut ceremony marks the end of the hibernation period and the beginning of a new phase of life in The Park.
“It’s a day of faith renewed, as well as hope for the future,” Park psychoanalyst Dr. Elinore E. Owl, has said.
Clark Cascanueces, President of the Park Historical Society, told The Mammalian Daily that its significance “cannot be underrated.”
“It renews our faith in our community of non-hibernating friends as well as our faith in ourselves and our survival,” he said.
“I think Nestor would be honoured to be remembered at such an event.”
