Lost and Found

Tuesday night, Jesse and I were leaving our house to go to a celebration dinner (more to follow about that later). It was already later than we had anticipated, and I was anxious and hungry! We had tucked Ryleigh in her carseat, and I was getting in the car to go. Jesse calmly said, "Mel- come here." I was annoyed and nervous, thinking we had another leak or something from his car (we have been working on it nonstop lately- and every time we think it is fixed, a new leak springs up). I got out and walked around, to find him pointing at the driveway. A TINY baby bird, not even old enough to have feathers was laying there.

We both looked up, thinking it had obviously fallen from a nest, but there was no tree directly over us for it to have fallen from, and the closest one, was super high; if it survived a fall from there, it must be a miracle bird! I looked around in nearby shrubs, and we could not find a nest or any sign of mommy lurking in the leaves. Well, about that time, we noticed a man walking his huge dog around the corner, and I panicked. Jesse thought we ought to leave it there, but I could not watch it get eaten!! So I quickly went inside, grabbed a plastic container, and made a makeshift "nest" for the baby. We moved him inside, and then left for dinner.

I was nervous that we were going to come home to find a dead baby bird. I don't know anything about caring for baby birds, but I knew that they have to eat pretty often. So when we got home, sure enough it immediately threw back its head, mouth open, gaping at us for food. Jesse went into the back yard, and came back with a worm. You can watch the video of him attempting to feed the bird, using cut up worm and tweezers. The bird ended up eating a worm and a half!

Obviously, I was not going to stay up all night feeding the bird. I looked up a lot of information online, and realized there was no way I would be able to care for this bird. I found several nearby Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation locations, and planned to call in the morning. When I woke up yesterday, the bird sat up and threw its head back again for food. I went out and struggled to find a worm. Finally I found one, and tried to do what Jesse had done the night before. No luck. The bird would not eat them. He was chirping (sounded like crying), and seemed weaker than the night before.

I moved the makeshift nest outside for about 2 hours, settling it into a small tree nearby and watched eagerly for a mommy to return and care for her young. It never happened. I saw some nearby swallows come check it out, but kept flying into a tree way across the street. There was no way the baby could have made it from their nest way over there to our driveway. It can't move!

I called my vet first, and they of course said they don't treat baby birds. They gave me a new phone number and I called right away. Would you believe of the 4 TWRs I called, only 1 called me back? I sent numerous emails and never received a response. The one who called me back was located in the Memorial area, about 40 minutes away. I asked her on the phone, "you all take care of baby birds?" She said "yes ma'am, of course!" So I drove all the way down there. The bird was obviously in distress, as it "cried" (chirped) the whole way there.

I got out of the car, grabbed Ryleigh and the bird, and went inside. There were 2 ladies up front, and 1 was talking to another man holding a shoebox. Apparently he had a baby raccoon. She was practically yelling at him, saying "you just gave this raccoon a death sentence. You cant take it back, we can never release it into the wild, you just handed it its death sentence." The man looked appalled, seeing as how he it brought it there to try to help it! I stood back, nervously awaiting what she had to say to me. Luckily, the other lady approached me. I showed her the bird and told her I had called earlier. She asked me to fill out some paperwork. There was a box on the form that said "Do you want to know the outcome of this animal?" I checked yes. I gave a $40 donation and was finishing up my paperwork.

The other (mean) lady looked over and said, "you brought in a sparrow. Sparrows are not protected, and we cannot give you the outcome, because there are just too many."

I said, "Ummm, okay. But is the outcome usually good?" still thinking that she meant there were too many birds to keep up with, so she couldn't track it. Well, she just walked away.

The nice lady waited until she had left and whispered to me, "they will probably euthanize the baby. That is why they don't promise an outcome." I was furious. Absolutely livid. She had just read this man his rights saying he handed the raccoon its death sentence for bringing it in trying to help, and she is going to blatantly kill this baby bird??

I said, "I called before I came. I asked if you all would care for the bird. I drove 40 minutes. I would have at least attempted to care for it if I knew you were just going to kill it!"

She looked at me and whispered, "I'm going to take it home with me, don't worry. I care for baby birds, and I will take care of it."

I looked her dead in the eye, and said, "you promise? Because if you are not, you can give it back to me now. I would at least give it a fighting chance."

She promised.

So I left. I was so frustrated. The man had been reamed out for trying to do the right thing. Be the good guy. It had gotten him no where. I felt his frustration. What in the world are we supposed to do?

I know that I could not have cared for that little bird. I wanted to give it a shot at life. The lady told me she had a special bird formula-type liquid that she would feed it until it was able to eat other things. I hope I made the right decision. I guess I'll never know. I did kind of miss the chirping this morning when I woke up. He was a cute little fella, and I wish he had never been separated from his mommy. Such a sad little story.