About two weeks ago we found a surprise on our front doorstep. I was watering my garden when this weird pink thing started moving awkwardly in the dirt. It scared the living daylights out of me but when I looked closer, I realized it was a baby bird that had fallen out of it’s nest. There were actually four baby birds on the ground in total, only one had survived. Nevan and I rushed inside, grabbed a tissue box, and put him under a heat lamp. I told Nevan that the bird probably wouldn’t survive the night which left tears in his eyes, but we decided to do the best that we could. Over the past 13 years I’ve found and tried to rescue about 6 different baby birds that never survived. Cameron and I were skeptical about taking him in knowing full and well that Nevan would be in tears and devastated in the morning.
I researched online what to feed him and Cameron ran to the corner gas station to pick up some wet canned dog food. Every 20 minutes we fed him that day, and I woke up every hour that night to continue feedings. The little guy made it through his first night and we decided to call him “Warrior.” I told Nevan that he probably wouldn’t make it through the next night either and kept up the same feeding routine. The little guy amazed us again and made it through the second night. At that point I considered writing about him in this blog, but I still didn’t think he’d pull through and I didn’t want to have to update everyone with bad news.
The Warrior came to us when he was just one day old according to the pictures we found online and his eyes were still closed. He is now three and a half weeks old and proudly flying around our house. He loves perching in Nevan’s hair, snuggling in Cameron’s shirt, and cuddling with me all rumpled up in the blankets on the couch. Originally I wanted to be able to release him back into the wild, but since he’s been fed by us at all hours of the day, he is no longer releasable (Nevan of course was hoping that this would be the case because, “Warrior is just too special to let go.”).
For those of you that aren’t familiar with our home. we basically live on a miniature farm (right now Nevan and I are sitting on bales of hay next to the goats, playing with legos, and writing this blog). We have goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, bees, a cat, a very pregnant German Shepherd, and now a hand fed wild sparrow. Every spring baby goats start popping up along with the renewed visits of wild rabbits, elk, deer, and bobcats. I recently found out from a neighbor of mine that everyone refers to me as “the animal lady.” Along with the miracles of birth each spring come the loss of animals, mainly due to the bobcats in the area. Death and loss is very much a part of our way of life where we live which I feel has helped Nevan understand that every living being has a beginning and an end and this has allowed him to better cope with the loss of his brother. Along with that understanding comes the constant reminder that life is fleeting and delicate which adds worry to Nevan’s daily tasks.
Bringing Warrior into our home was worrisome for these reasons because we knew that Nevan would immediately become attached to the little guy. I feel that we are given things throughout our life to help us grow and understand the lessons that we need to learn before we pass on to heaven. At this point in our life we have been surrounded by alot of death and grieving and I think that it was understood that we needed a little bit of hope and life to bring a more positive form of energy into our home. Warrior has accomplished this for us tenfold, and he’s pretty cute to boot!
Surviving Superheroes 