Home Zookeeper

If you love animals as much as I do, the little critters that you see in your neighborhood-birds, squirrels, etc.-feel as much like pets as the animals roaming around inside your house. This is an experience I had with one of those “wild pets”…

Last summer around lunch time I was sitting in the living room with my laptop and my food, you know, the essentials, when I heard a loud DONK! Right away I knew what had happened. Another bird flew into our big front window. I got up and looked down through the glass to see a young grey bird in a daze among our landscaping wood chips.

I immediately went outside to check on the poor little animal. She was young, had speckles on her chest, but I don’t know what kind of bird she was, just that she wasn’t a robin. I gingerly picked her up and could feel her trembling. I examined her for any obvious injuries and noticed that one eye was blinking and one was not. At first I thought it was the blinking eye that was injured, but I turned out to be wrong.

My dad came outside and looked at her, and then tried placing her on a branch in our big tree. She fell off. So then, Dad lightly tossed her into the air, but her wings only fluttered, not enough to sustain flight. He gave her back to me and I planned to stay with her until she recovered, or died. I liked the feeling of her perched along my finger anyway.

So, I just sat in the sun in my driveway, lightly petting my new friend and examining her wings. She wasn’t trembling as much and seemed a little more alert. I tried a few times to set her into flight, but she still couldn’t do it and she was content in my company. I walked around with her and talked to her a bit…it’s so easy for me to talk soothingly to animals…and that was about the time I noticed.

In the time that I had held her, the eye that was not blinking had become red and watery, her eyelid very swollen. It also looked as though the eye itself was not functioning. It did not respond to the wave of my hand. I was worried and feared she was in pain. I even considered taking her to the vet. I had to tell myself that she’s a wild animal, and though quite fragile, I was sure birds lived through these little mishaps all the time.

I kept on holding her, petting her, letting her collect herself. She wouldn’t take off from my hand and I didn’t want her to fall and break a leg. I kneeled down along the yard, placed the young bird in my palm and gently wrapped my fingers around her little body. You can do it this time I thought. Then I tossed her up into the air and she flapped her wings, flying into the tree nearby.

I was oddly proud and incredibly relieved. It felt so good to see her fly successfully, to witness hope that the little bird could live on, and that I was a part of it. That’s the best feeling, helping an animal.

Tell me your animal rescue stories, I’d love to hear them!