Yesterday after a lovely, carefree afternoon of frolicking at the beach with my niece and nephew, house hunting, and a date at the donut shop with Adam, I came home to find a grim scene: a helpless baby bird in my driveway. It was heartbreaking. He was totally crying out for help from his tiny little adorable yellow beak and kinda flopping around in one place. My best guess is that he fell out of the nest somehow and broke a leg.
I always feel like I should DO something in these situations, but I had no idea what. I thought about taking a picture and then immediately realized that this was a really bizarre impulse and what on earth would I do with a photo of this nature. After calling Adam and Joey for advice, they both told me to leave it alone and go about my business and hope that the mother would find it. So I took the dogs to the beach for a diversion. Only, the beach down from our house was nearly apocalyptic last night, strange fish carcasses on the shore and weird items of clothing strewn about. This didn't exactly relax my state of mind.
So I returned home to assess the situation. Baby bird still there. This time on his back and clearly in a bad way. I just came inside and tried to ignore it. Around 10:30 I was emailing Adam who was still at work, and he asked for an update. I said I didn't know, and he was horrified that I hadn't killed the thing yet and put it out of its misery. Well now I felt truly terrible. I went back outside to see if it was still alive. I shone a flashlight on it to find his little birdie stomach was barely rising and falling. Now I really lost it. I called Adam sobbing hysterically and could barely tell him that it was still alive and suffering. He said he was on his way home to take care of it. What a man. I couldn't have loved him more at that moment.
After hanging up with him, I felt really ridiculous that I couldn't just deal with this. So I got in the car and attempted to run over it, twice, and failed both times. And I just couldn't try a third time. I just couldn't do it. So I waited for Adam to come home and when he did, I had to direct him in the car, pointing him to the right a bit so the wheel was perfectly positioned to crush the baby bird. Which it did. And I heard it. And it was terrible terrible terrible.
Adam assured me this morning that the birdie is chirping away in birdie heaven right now. Moral of this story: when choosing a mate, don't worry about things like, does he/she bring you flowers and presents. Just be sure they are going to sympathize when you are weeping inexplicably over a fallen bird and drop whatever they are doing to come home so you don't have to be the one to kill it.
5.08.2008
The cruelty of nature and pregnancy hormones
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9 comments:
There is no way in a million kajillion years I could ever do that, even to put an end to another's pain.
You people are very strong.
wait, you ran over it twice and didn't kill it?
I totally picked E as my mate because he kills small furry animals with precision and unbiased wrath. That was on my must have list.
No, I missed the bird twice with the car, didn't even touch it. I have no idea how I missed it. Let's blame it on the tears and the deep hesitation I felt in the first place at killing the poor thing.
UJ and I aren't sure what we were suppose to do with our emotions on this one!! Whether to laugh or cry so we did both!
Ah, the experiences of life!
AJ
I told you to let the dogs at it. You should have listened to me, and you could have avoided that whole emotional rollercoaster.
I remember one time Patrick stomped a mouse to death.
I was torn between horror and gratitude, which is an altogether weird thing.
My condolences!!
Oh how awful. Thankfully, all of my animal killing has happened in the middle of the night (mousetraps.) Except for that one time I accidentally ran over a squirrel and had to pull over because I couldn't see through my tears.
Oh, Gawd...Yup, it's just one of those things...Adam IS a good man. And you're a good woman, albeit in an altogether different way. You two make a fine couple. And as for the birdie, hey, it's just one of those things, ya know?
~Uncle Booger
beast, i can totally relate... when Maili caught that rabbit on EASTER, of all holidays, last year, and half tore it apart, i couldn't have cried harder if i tried... and watching ryan venture into the rain to put it out of its misery with a shovel head was more than i could bear. i coudln't even look at Maili for the rest of the night! Hopefully, you're little birdie, and that rabbit, are playing in animal heaven right now...oh, and with the other little dead bunny i found on the bed of Maili's crate last month, too. She's such a b*tch!
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