Excitement, we has it

As part of getting ready to move, one of our monumental tasks is clearing out our storage unit. Since we don't have a garage or attic, it's where we've been just dumping all of our crap. Part of the problem is, we don't go there very often, so stuff sits there a long time and we forget about it. So it's been fun clearing it out and rediscovering everything. I mean fun as both fun, and "fun".

Jeremy spent some time last night bringing home boxes for me to go through. (4 down, 5 zillion to go, woot!) I was sitting on the swing getting some fresh air, and after he was done moving the boxes I heard him go "Aw!" and he was staring at the ground. I go over to see what he is looking at. I stare at something pink flopping around on the ground for a minute before I realize. . .it's a bird. A baby one. In our carport. I scooped it up, as it was kind of cool out and I knew it would probably die quick. That, and we have a lot of stray cats in our neighborhood. We considered trying to put him back, but we realized it just wasn't going to be possible. The nest is up in the roof of the carport, entangled in the wires for the carport light. Trying to put him back would have probably resulted in one of us getting electrocuted. (as for the thing about the parents smelling you on the baby, that's actually a myth. Most songbirds can't smell that well.)

So I brought the baby inside (a sparrow in case you were wondering) and googled what in the heck to do. A lot of sites recommended cat food made mushy with water, and sparrows are actually easy to feed. There was even a video on YouTube showing how. I then found a place not too far away that takes in sparrows and squirrels and things like that and shot them an email to see if they could take him. (her?)

They wrote back and said they could, and gave me directions to come out the next day. I spent my night feeding and watching over something that was so cute it was ugly. Seriously, when you get that up close and personal, it eerily reminds you of something created by Jim Henson. The bird showed promise though, it was a good eater, and was a bit feisty. A lot of times I'd have to fight it over the stick I used to feed it.

Me and the kids drove today to drop the bird off. The lady was really nice, and even took us back to show the kids the squirrels. One even let us pet it. (a squirrel is a lot softer than I thought it would be) When we left she had already started feeding the bird, telling me that I must have done something right, because he/she was pooping a ton. And she promised to send me pictures of the bird's progress.

So it was an interesting 24 hours. I feel that I really taught my kids something today though, which of course is an awesome feeling. It was a good day.

A picture of the resident of my night stand last night: