Part Three: Figuring
Out What To Do
Sarah stood there, unsure of what to do. She tried to examine the bird to see if maybe
its wing was broken, but there wasn’t any telltale sign of injury that she
could see. That didn’t mean too much,
though, because Sarah was no bird expert.
One thing she could do, though, was keep this baby
warm. Already she could feel the heat
from her hands beginning to warm the baby up, and that made her feel good. It seemed very content to be in her
hands. It wasn’t struggling, and it had
stopped opening its mouth for food, but rather snuggled into her palm when she
cupped her hands closer together that cocooned him inside.
Slowly Sarah walked up the steps to her apartment building,
glancing around uncertainly, hoping to spot some of her neighbor friends that
she could ask for help. Unfortunately,
no one was outside. She went up to two
different doors and knocked, but no one answered.
Sarah felt the only option left to her was to go inside,
boot up the laptop, and Google how to take care of a bird that had fallen out
of its nest.
With very careful hands she kept the baby in one hand—she
couldn’t help but be amazed at how tiny it was, and how easy it fit into just
the palm of her slender hand, and how big its beak was—and used her other hand
to grab the apartment keys and unlock her door.
Once inside, Sarah took a moment to stare at the baby
bird. He wasn’t the cutest baby she’d
ever seen, but he wasn’t terribly ugly
either—just a little bit ugly. She
figured he was going to be cuter when he grew into his large beak, but in a
way, that’s what made him so cute as he was.
At least, that’s what she thought.
Then that was when it happened.
The baby pooped in her hand.
Sarah grimaced. She
really hated warm poop in her hand. She
felt proud of herself, though. She
didn’t freak out at all, something she was tempted to do, because she really hated warm poop in her hand. Instead, she sighed.
“Okay Little Dude, I’m gonna have to put you down so I can boot
up the laptop and clean off my hand. I
need to figure out how to take care of you.”
Before she did that, however, another idea came to her. She really wanted a picture of Little Dude,
so small inside her hand. So she
carefully grabbed her cell phone out of her purse and clicked a picture of
him.
Then she uploaded it to Facebook, asking for helpful advice
on how to care for this Little Dude she just found.
Facebook will give me
answers probably faster than I can boot up my laptop.
While she waited for a reply, she just had to call her
husband, who was still at work. He
answered the phone, but he was busy, and although she knew the answer, she had
to quickly ask him, “What do I do with a baby bird that has fallen out of his nest?”
Her husband was surprised by that question, and his
immediate response was, “Oh wow. Um. . .
I don’t know, but I’m busy, can I call you back?”
Sarah glumly let her husband go, not feeling confident in
handling this situation by herself, but nonetheless knew that she was going to
have to. After hanging up with her
sweetheart, she gently put Little Dude (which was now his name, Sarah decided)
onto the carpet. She wasn’t sure if this
was a good idea, but she was curious to observe Little Dude to check if he
really was injured.
Little Dude stuck his wings out for balance as he was put
onto the ground, and Sarah noted that they seemed in good working order. He stuck his wobbly legs out, and unsteadily
began to hobble around. Sarah watched
very carefully, trying to decide if Little Dude was hobbling because he was
hurt, or because he was still so very young that he was unpracticed at
walking. After enough observation, she
concluded in her unprofessional opinion that it was the latter.
Sarah then went to thoroughly wash her hands, boot up the
laptop, and by the time she did all of that, she checked her phone, and found
that already she had responses from her friends on Facebook.
Sarah found herself smiling, because the very first response
was from a dear online friend she had known for years, and this friend gave her
a Wikipedia link, “How to take care of a baby bird that has fallen out of its
nest.”
Those were the very words she was going to Google! I knew
my friends on Facebook would come through for me first.
Right away she tapped on that link and began reading the
information. The very first tip on that
page was saying not to feed it any kind of liquid, because baby birds can
asphyxiate really easy. That made Sarah
feel better that she hadn’t tried to do anything like that yet. She read on.
If you are curious about the information she found, here’s the
link: http://www.wikihow.com/Help-a-Baby-Bird-That-Has-Fallen-Out-of-a-Nest
Sarah felt happy when the advice she read mentioned to put
the baby bird back into its nest. That
was her first instinct. The problem was,
there were a couple of holes in the ceiling of her carport, and she wasn’t sure
she was tall enough to see which hole had the nest in it. That’s when she really wished her husband was
at home, because he was definitely tall enough.
Her Facebook notifications pinged at her, so she checked for
the responses that were coming in. Two
separate responses both told her that there was risk of Mama not accepting the
bird back into her care once human scent got onto her baby.
Sarah could feel her heart sink. She had already handled Little Dude with her
bare hands. What was she going to do
with him if she couldn’t put him back in his nest?
At that point, a third response came onto Facebook, and told
her not to worry, that it was an old wife’s tale that a Mama bird wouldn’t
accept her baby back after being handled by a human.
That made Sarah feel better, but still confused on what
advice to believe. She really wanted to
make sure Little Dude survived. Making
the right move was critical.
To be continued. . . Stay tuned for Part Four on Wednesday!
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