Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Feather

Everyone has a memory of rescuing some sort of creature in their young life.  Whether its as big as a dog or as small as a mouse innately we are given a sense of compassion for little hurt creatures.  For me it was a tiny baby mouse and multiple birds and a couple kitties.  While many of these wayward creatures survive inevitably there are the ones that don't and as an impressionable child they are the hardest to understand.


Yesterday amidst my shower Evie came running into the bathroom saying "Mommy I scared of bag!!"  I asked her what bag she was talking about and she said "swim bag Mommy, swim bag.....come see!"  I tried not to giggle and be frustrated.  I was running late and needing to get dressed, but I grasped my towel about me and let her lead me to our big swimming tote. Before even getting close I saw.....what is that? Wings!  Fluttering wings.  Maddie my cat was ready to pounce and at first I thought a crazy bird had managed to get itself into our home.  Upon closer review I discovered that it was a wee baby bird that had somehow managed to get into our swimming bag.  Evie was spot on!  I quickly got myself dressed, removed the cat from the situation, called Lily in to see and carefully picked up this little bird.


We took him outside and put him up on our playset with some water.  I had no idea what I was going to do with a little baby bird.  Upon inspecting him I noticed that one of his wings was not working right and I suspected a break.  The girls named him Feather and instantly got attached to him.  I hoped.......but I knew.  Feather was probably not going to make it.



All day we watched him, kept him safe and up off the ground and every time he would attempt to fly that bad wing wouldn't work and he would fall.  We gave him more water, held him and loved him but Bob and I knew that it was only a matter of time before we would need to help him out of his misery.

At bed time last night after a hard day of trying to help Feather survive, he attempted to fly and injured a leg.   He was done.  He was breathing so hard and his little body couldn't even stay upright.  Bob took him out and sent him to Jesus. The girls were asleep so this morning is going to be a hard one.

Man parenting is hard.  Life is so precious and my heart is sad that the first little animal my girls and I rescued didn't make it.  It is amazing how the kindest thing you can do sometimes for these animals is end their suffering.  It is a hard concept......especially for little kids.  Bob and I practically cried ourselves to sleep over it.  Death is hard.


Rest in Peace Feather. We love you.

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