Beya and the Birdie
I think it must be some kind of rite of passage as a child to find a baby bird fallen out of a nest. It occurred to me today that this must happen an awful lot for us humans to stumble across ailing birds multiple times in our life. This morning while putting some recycling out front I stepped right over a baby bird that was almost on the threshold of my front door. By baby, I mean obviously more of an adolescent but still downy in places indicating its youth. It looked rather distressed panting after a fashion and completely unwilling or unable to move away from me as I stooped down for a closer look.
I immediately took in its fragile nature and considered putting it out of its obvious misery. I wrestled with this thought for a while trying to determine how I could do it that wouldn't give me nightmares later on. I've read about twisting necks in order to end the life quickly and I honestly was having a hard time picturing myself doing that. I also thought about just squashing it under foot but even that made me wince at the thought of hearing/feeling its poor little bones crack. This might sound a little morbid to some but I was really struggling with what the right thing to do was and trying to find a way that I could end its life humanely. I decided I would simply let it be and see what happened. I noticed its body appeared intact and its mouth appeared a little bloody and I thought either it was bleeding internally or it had hurt its beak somehow which would mean its injury would be something it could probably get over.
So I put it in a box next to the door and then began to consider whether I should let my kids in on the secret. I realized if I did then I was going to have to keep my eye on them to make sure they wouldn't touch it or get too close or jostle it. Letting little kids have their way with animals when they don't understand their strength and being unable to empathize with how the creature feels is the epitome of inhumane in my book. I have seen some parents allow their kids to play with the family dog in ways that can certainly be considered abuse thinking that the kids are just being cute. It's irresponsible and unjust not to mention bad parenting to let kids believe that animals in any phylum are just for our enjoyment and their lives are not deserving of respect. Thinking of how I am always trying to impress on Novan and Beya the sanctity of life in all forms I decided I should take the opportunity to teach them how animals should be treated before they find a baby bird without me one day and have their way with it.
I should have known Novan's interest would last about 5 minutes before he got bored with it and went to find something else to do. He was intrigued of course that the bird was hurt and once I explained it wasn't alright to touch it or get it a blanket (as he said the bird looked cold and needed one) he seemed fine with it and went on his way. Beya, on the other hand, showed her nurturing nature in all its glory. She wanted to get it a blanket and then she wanted to get it some food. She asked to touch it of course but I explained the bird didn't feel well and touching it might hurt him. Once I explained that it probably had tried to fly and got separated from its nest and fell down away from its mommy she was in quite a bit of distress. I had gone inside to fold some laundry and she followed me and started crying. I couldn't get her to calm down enough to tell me what the matter was for a bit and finally I was able to make out "but we need to find his nest!" "he needs to go back to his mommy!" Poor thing. She was obviously pretty upset about it and I told her we had no way of knowing where his nest or his mommy was and that if she wanted to we could pray for the bird to get well enough to be able to fly back to his nest. She liked that idea and so she prayed with a little prompting and she seemed much happier.
After about 30 minutes I thought it would be a good idea to get it a cage at least until it started to look a little livelier otherwise I was going to have to keep checking on it to make sure Beya wasn't touching it. However while I was walking toward the front door with the cage I saw it lift off and fly away. Beya was pretty upset then as she was excited to be able to prepare a cage for it. I had to explain again to Beya that birds like to live in trees and that it was much happier and that Heavenly Father had answered her prayer that the bird had gotten well enough to fly back to its nest and to its mommy. I looked in one of the trees in the front yard and saw it perched there. I showed Beya where it was and explained that it was much happier in the trees and she seemed happy that she got to see it one last time.
I immediately took in its fragile nature and considered putting it out of its obvious misery. I wrestled with this thought for a while trying to determine how I could do it that wouldn't give me nightmares later on. I've read about twisting necks in order to end the life quickly and I honestly was having a hard time picturing myself doing that. I also thought about just squashing it under foot but even that made me wince at the thought of hearing/feeling its poor little bones crack. This might sound a little morbid to some but I was really struggling with what the right thing to do was and trying to find a way that I could end its life humanely. I decided I would simply let it be and see what happened. I noticed its body appeared intact and its mouth appeared a little bloody and I thought either it was bleeding internally or it had hurt its beak somehow which would mean its injury would be something it could probably get over.
So I put it in a box next to the door and then began to consider whether I should let my kids in on the secret. I realized if I did then I was going to have to keep my eye on them to make sure they wouldn't touch it or get too close or jostle it. Letting little kids have their way with animals when they don't understand their strength and being unable to empathize with how the creature feels is the epitome of inhumane in my book. I have seen some parents allow their kids to play with the family dog in ways that can certainly be considered abuse thinking that the kids are just being cute. It's irresponsible and unjust not to mention bad parenting to let kids believe that animals in any phylum are just for our enjoyment and their lives are not deserving of respect. Thinking of how I am always trying to impress on Novan and Beya the sanctity of life in all forms I decided I should take the opportunity to teach them how animals should be treated before they find a baby bird without me one day and have their way with it.
I should have known Novan's interest would last about 5 minutes before he got bored with it and went to find something else to do. He was intrigued of course that the bird was hurt and once I explained it wasn't alright to touch it or get it a blanket (as he said the bird looked cold and needed one) he seemed fine with it and went on his way. Beya, on the other hand, showed her nurturing nature in all its glory. She wanted to get it a blanket and then she wanted to get it some food. She asked to touch it of course but I explained the bird didn't feel well and touching it might hurt him. Once I explained that it probably had tried to fly and got separated from its nest and fell down away from its mommy she was in quite a bit of distress. I had gone inside to fold some laundry and she followed me and started crying. I couldn't get her to calm down enough to tell me what the matter was for a bit and finally I was able to make out "but we need to find his nest!" "he needs to go back to his mommy!" Poor thing. She was obviously pretty upset about it and I told her we had no way of knowing where his nest or his mommy was and that if she wanted to we could pray for the bird to get well enough to be able to fly back to his nest. She liked that idea and so she prayed with a little prompting and she seemed much happier.
After about 30 minutes I thought it would be a good idea to get it a cage at least until it started to look a little livelier otherwise I was going to have to keep checking on it to make sure Beya wasn't touching it. However while I was walking toward the front door with the cage I saw it lift off and fly away. Beya was pretty upset then as she was excited to be able to prepare a cage for it. I had to explain again to Beya that birds like to live in trees and that it was much happier and that Heavenly Father had answered her prayer that the bird had gotten well enough to fly back to its nest and to its mommy. I looked in one of the trees in the front yard and saw it perched there. I showed Beya where it was and explained that it was much happier in the trees and she seemed happy that she got to see it one last time.
Yep, right of passage. But that picture of Beya is BEAUTIFUL with her hair!!!!
ReplyDeleteGlad that you were able to put off the natural man and call in the big guns to get the bird off the ground. Prayer is a super cool thing...even if you have to tell kids how to do it, it is still honored. I love that our kids use prayer to "fix" things. You're a great example there, Mrs. Mom. :-)
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