Bye Bye, Birdie

Yesterday, we were walking from house to house in our neighborhood's yard sale, when Kaela noticed the pitiful chirps of a nearly-starved baby robin. Closer inspection revealed that his nest had blown out of a low branch, and the ground was littered with the tiny corpses of his two sibings who didn't survive the trauma. Knowing death was imminent either way, we gave into Kaela's tearful pleading, and she and I walked back with a container to transport the little fella home to be nursed back to health.

We found the coolest website from which we were able to ascertain that our frail but noisy companion was about six days post-hatching, and would need to be hand fed for about five more days until he was able to leave the nest (cardboard box). The websites also told us WHAT to feed baby fledglings, and it was the first time in a while that I remembered to mentally thank Al Gore for inventing the Internet so this wealth of information could be conveniently accessed! The food was readily available (under the top layer of the neighbor's grass, since ours is chemically scorched for the time being) and free. The timeline was perfect, too, because in seven days we are leaving for vacation. We rolled up our sleeves and decided to try to save him. (Well....Kaela and I did. ha)

We fed him through the night last night while Eric was out of town, a mixture of hard-boiled egg yolks and warmed milk. He was sweet, opening his beak so wide to greet each morsel. Kaela named him Cocoa.

This morning he was sassy and chirpy, having grown in new feathers overnight, and already wearing a new "hardened" expression of one who has survived unspeakable loss. Either that, or the feathers that grew over his eyes in funny tufts gave him the streetwise expression of Martin Scorsese....and we began to believe he would survive.

However, his hardened look was all for show, because this afternoon our new friend took a turn for the worst, and despite moving him into the cool house and hand-feeding him juicy earthworms and water with a pair of tweezers....he succumbed to flying around in the Birdie Hereafter at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon. We learned a lot from our nursemaid adventure, and while Kaela and Ben are sad, both of them commented on how peaceful he looks in death--almost like he could fly right out of his box, poor thing. We will give him a proper burial right after church tonight.

Rest in peace, Cocoa. We'll miss you!