My best childhood friend has resurfaced in my life. We haven’t spoken or heard of or seen each other in 40 years. I know . . . unbelievable. She heard my name in a nearby restaurant a week ago so looked me up; it turns out we live just a couple of miles from each other! She built her house here in ’94. I moved here a year ago. SO close and yet we could have spent the next 15 years like the last 40 — out of touch. It is so interesting how fate intervenes in your favor at certain moments in your life. This has been one of those moments.
I don’t know why we lost touch, besides the fact that my family moved away when I was 11, but getting back together has been like toast and butter. Easy peasy. We were (are still!) both adventuresome spirits and did some pretty crazy things as wee ones — and the few times we were able to reunite in our early teens — and it seems like our pattern may still persist.
Our current adventure — not so dramatic, but not something one does every day: this morning we rescued a clutch of baby birds from her mailbox. They’ve been there, happily ensconced in a cozy nest, for at least a couple of weeks, and she has checked them every day when she walks a mile to collect her newspaper therefrom. Sadly, the last 3 or 4 days no mama or papa birds have flown out when she approached. So we knew those babies were in trouble.
Temperatures have begun to soar, making that box an oven, and as of yesterday we decided if there was no sign of parental concern by morning we would take the young ones. Which we did this morning. There were five, and they were very, very weak and had obviously had no care or feeding for quite a while.
The babies are now resting with the local wildlife rescue organization, and we hope at least 2 or 3 of them will survive. When I told another couple of friends about our rescue escapade today, however, they scoffed and said we should have let nature take its course (and that those baby birds would have made a great snack for the dogs!!!).
Frankly, I think if we humans erect a mailbox that attracts birds to nest in it, even though it will turn into an inferno about the time the babies begin maturing, then what else can we conscionably do but rescue them if the parents go AWOL. This is not nature taking its course. It is nature skewed by man taking a different course.
But I also understand the viewpoint of my other friends: we can’t save every little orphan soul so maybe allowing them to go on their angelic way is best.
Whichever, I think you must simply follow your heart. Rescue if you are led to; leave alone if you think that best. But, for my sweet childhood buddy and me, we could never leave anything alone, much less a baby thing, so jumping in feet first to see what we could do about her mailbox birdies was second nature to us.
Here’s to best friends and childhood memories and rescuing baby things!
Recent Comments