The Bird

Yesterday morning I was having my coffee watching the birds at the feeders, when suddenly, what looked like a Northern Junco, smashed into the patio door and fell to the deck.  I quickly went to see how it was but it wasn't doing well at all.  I opened the door and brought it into the warm house to see if it would recover.  Well after about five or ten minutes it straightened its head and legs and I thought he might be just fine.  I went to grab it but it started to fly, all I had managed to do was grab one of its legs and it started to scream so I let go.  What followed was a real circus.  It was flying all over the kitchen.  I was getting close enough but as soon as I tried to grab it would fly away ….

So I opened the patio door and thought he might find his way out.  Not so, he was always flying close to the ceiling and wouldn’t find the open door.  After about ten minutes of this I closed the door since it was getting cold inside.  What to do?  It kept flying everywhere.  Then it happened, the bird sort of found the patio door and flew all the way down.  To my shock my big black cat jumped on the bird and caught it in its mouth.  I had forgotten about the cat. I was furious and screamed at the cat to let go.  The cat started running and I after it.  I just missed the cat and it ran downstairs with me in hot pursuit … finally in the basement I was able to catch the cat by the hind quarters.  I squeezed, the cat meowed and let go of the bird.  The bird immediately flew to somewhere in the ceiling joists.  I couldn’t see it.  I looked everywhere, and thought he must be gravely injured and would die somewhere alone.

I came back up and remembered we had a butterfly net.  It was a small children’s net but I thought if the bird got out again I might be able to catch it with it.  I found the net after about a long while  and went back downstairs.  I sat there in the middle waiting.  Suddenly the bird flew right over my head to another corner.  I opened a window.  I came close to it, readied the net and made a feeble attempt… it flew away It seemed to avoid the open window on purpose … this went on for quite some time until I finally got it by going over it with the net.  I had noticed the bird always flew up a little when it took off so that’s how I approached it with the net over it and it worked … I went to the window and released it.  It flew straight up to a very high tree.  I felt exhilarated and redeemed.

In trying to do the right thing I had almost got that little bird killed.