Another Bird Story...

For some unknown reason, we have a lot of unfortunate events with birds around here. A bird flew into my parked car and died. There was the story of the deceased bird in our driveway (see that story a couple posts back) and then there is the story of the baby birthday bird. I will delight all of you with that story now. Actually, it was very tragic, so if you are sensitive when it comes to animals (Andrea), please read no more.

On June 7th, 2009, I turned the ripe 'ol age of 25. The birthday festivities were the best yet, beginning with a 90-minute hot stone massage and a apple pie caramel apple. I taught a lesson at church that went well and I gave googly eyes to the secret crush at church. My friends Doug and Laura brought me a birthday cake and I was preparing to head over to Mom's for a multi-birthday feast with my family.

Five minutes after Doug and Laura left me with my delicious cake, I heard a knock on the door. I answered it and it was Laura with her hands cupped together. She says, "Look what I found?" She opens her hands and there is a teency, tiny bird. Really tiny. It had to have just hatched, it was that small. She saw this tiny bird in the gutter next to two others which were dead. She went on to tell me that she would take it home and care for it but she had 2 cats at home so she asked me to take it. Of course, I could not say no. I have a very, very soft spot in my heart when it comes to animals. So I found a tiny box, made a make-shift home and headed over to Mom's. Andrea was there (she is also an animal-lover) and she supported me in trying to nurse this baby bird back to health. She went online and found out how to provide emergency care for a baby bird. We fed it a water and sugar mixture using a tiny dropper. After a couple hours of this, it started to perk up and was not nearly as lethargic. I was diligent in feeding it every half-hour. I spent the whole rest of my birthday night nursing this bird back to health. The online instructions indicated that it was not necessary to feed the bird at night. We went to bed and I was thrilled that the bird was becoming more and more active. I woke up in the morning and the bird had made it! I prepared its meal (egg yolk and baby oatmeal cereal mixed with water) and went to feed it. Again, it was so lethargic it could barely hold its head. I went to get a warm cloth to clean the food off its feathers, and when I got back to the bird, it had passed away. I instantly started to cry uncontrollably for at least 10 minutes. I was so disappointed. I went and woke Carter up and he helped me fill the bird's box with shredded paper. We sealed it up with tape and took it to the garbage can. Carter told me in a very optimistic tone, "Don't cry Mom. He is in heaven with Jesus. And Sneakers. And Pookie". And so he was.