Yesterday evening we headed to the lake to let Joshua run off some excess energy. Well, we didn't quite make it to the lake, we actually made it half way down the block right before you turn to go down to the road that goes to the lake, and we had to make a U-turn. My mom noticed a baby bird dancing in the center line of Pinetree Blvd, and the traffic was pretty because it was about 7pm, and everyone was getting off work and headed out for dinner. Joshua had a meltdown in the backseat of course, but we just couldn't let this little bird get ran over. As soon as we turned to go back, the baby bird flopped right towards the tire of a big SUV, and missed it by less than an inch. I could have swore he actually went under the tire, but when we parked in the middle of the road, the baby was still flopping around. I waited for traffic to pass on my side of the truck, and soon as I had the chance, I jumped out and ran towards the helpless creature in the middle of this busy road. I scooped him up, and walked back to the truck. I got several strange glances by people passing by and I had one nice man ask, if we had broke down. When I got back in, we headed to the house to get something to put the lil' one down in, and I got one of Joshua's old shoe boxes that had a fold over lid, and stuck my well worn shirt that I've had since I was 7 in the box to keep him warm and cozy. I've always used that shirt to sleep in and it's had it's wear and tear, and was definately time to retire the shirt, my mom joked about it being like a "staple in my life", but it's just one I've never tossed out. We went back into town and tried both pet stores, which was no success because they both were closed when we got to them, so we headed to Wal-Mart to see if we could find something that would improvise til' we could get him to someone who knew what they were doing or until we could get to an actual pet store with baby bird food. Blood worms(dehydrated), bird vitamins, a couple drops of milk, a pair of tweezers and an eyedropper later, the baby bird got his first meal before we settled him down for the night. He spent the night inside the shoebox in my t-shirt drawer, so that no one (Joshua or one of the cats) could get to him, plus it's nice and warm inside the drawer which is good for baby birds who are supposed to be kept at temps around 86*F. He got another couple of meals this morning, when we got the call from a lady who works along side Clanton's Veterinary Hospital to take the baby and drop him/she off. I'm really glad that we were able to find someone to take the bird that does that kind of thing for a living because I don't know how well I could hold up having to feed it every 3 to 4 hours (except from midnight to about 5am when they sleep), and having Joshua jumping around constantly. Joshua doesn't understand he has to be gentle around tiny animal babies. All in all, it was a good 16 hour experience. We saved a life, and hopefully the bird will stay away from roads when he is released back into the wild.
*On The Way To It's New Home*
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