Animal Rescue

I was cleaning up my emails and came across this. Shelley had called one day a couple of weeks ago with this horrendous story and I asked her to write it up for me. I love hearing about her escapades and thought you would enjoy it too. Shelley, hope you don't mind, I can't resist.

Mom,

Here's the story of my daring animal rescue last week. And my half-hearted animal rescue today.

One morning last week we were in the house when I heard a lot of noise going on out in the garage. I could not figure out what all the commotion was. I opened the door from the house into the garage and saw that there was a robin in the garage, perched on top of the stroller, going nuts and chirping as loudly as it could. I couldn't figure out what it was so upset about until I saw the stupid little kitten pounce out from under the van. He had a little baby robin trapped between his front paws. Then that little bird would stick his neck and beak up in the air and start chirping too. He'd flap his wings and manage to hop a few feet away and the kitten would pounce back on top of it. As much as I did NOT want to intervene, I also didn't want the boys to come out to find a dead or half-eaten baby bird on the garage floor. So I started screaming at the cat... "Shoo!" "Stop it!" "Go away!" But he didn't care. At this point the mommy robin flew outside but continued to screech and make a racket. The little kitty had the bird trapped behind the garbage cans and I was trying to stick a broom back there to get the kitten out.

Around this time the dog heard the commotion and comes running into the garage. He started barking and barking at the kitten and then starts chasing it so he can carry it around in his mouth like he usually does. So I'm chasing the dog, who's chasing the kitten, who's chasing the little bird. At least 3 of the boys are standing at the door screaming "Don't let them get the bird!" "What are you going to do?" Well I had no idea what I was going to do. I still had my pajamas on and no shoes. Thad helped me out by throwing a doggie treat out and distracting the dog. Then I managed to find a shovel to shoo the kitten away. Now that little birdie was hopping around the garage floor. It was obvious that he was dragging one foot (do birds have feet?) and one wing looked kind of damaged. He was still chirping loudly as he flailed along. I managed to chase him to a back corner of the garage where he hid behind some shovels. I was NOT going to touch it with my hands, that's for sure!! So I figured I needed to find something to carry it in to get it out of the garage. And I couldn't just put it out by the tree or the dog and cat would just go over there and get it. I found a big rubbermaid tub in the garage full of baseball gloves and balls. I dumped it out and ran back to the corner. It was tricky to get the tub close enough for him to jump into it, without just squishing him more. Yuck. Once I had him in there, Thad ran some shoes out to me and I took it down by that little creek behind out house and dumped it in the brush out there. I figured it would either (1) be safe from our animals until he healed enough to fly back to its mom, or (2) be eaten by other animals. I choose to believe it was option number 1. Either way it was out of the garage.

So then today I decided the boys had endured the stench in their room long enough and I had better change the hamster's cage. This is the hamster that I did not want and everyone else insisted they would take care of. Guess who gets to change his cage every week? So I get out all my supplies and go to open his cage and realize he's not moving at all. Even when I'm trying to get the door open he makes no attempt to wake up or come out for some food or anything. He likes to sleep in the little nesting cage on top of his regular cage and unfortunately it was so dirty and gross that I couldn't really see through the plastic very well to see if he was breathing or not. Secretly I hoped he was not and that I could just throw the entire thing away, hamster and all. But like a good mom, I faked sympathy as the boys started to get upset and decided I would have to get the nesting cage open to see what was going on in there. Thad kept trying to open it to see, but I wouldn't let him for fear he'd find a half-decayed pet in there. After I got a screwdriver and started to get the lid open, that silly little thing woke right up and started nosing around to see what I was doing. It was hard not to be disappointed. Aren't I awful??!! So his cage is cleaned out now and the boys all claim to love him again now that they know he's alive and well.

I'm not sure how this non-animal-lover ended up on a farm with a bunch of pets, with me being their primary care-taker. When I thought about moving to the country I pictured myself sitting on the deck reading a book as the kids played outside in the yard, or working in a garden as they politely helped me. Not chasing an injured bird around the garage and then dumping him in the creek to be eaten by snakes. This is not what I signed up for!

Pray for me!
Shelley

P.S. Did you know that if you dump a bowl of peanuts in the bathtub they become really slimy and are extremely hard to get out? You can't drain the tub because they'll go down the drain and clog it. You can't chase them with a strainer because they are so lightweight and slimy that they won't catch in the strainer. I finally had to put the strainer upside-down on top of the drain and drain the tub, letting the strainer catch the peanuts on the outside. Luckily we don't have any allergies!! (I'll give you 1 guess as to who the peanut-dumper was.)
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8/17/09 I received a call from Shelley at 9:00 pm that the hamster was indeed now dead and she had 3 of the 5 boys hysterically upset. She has another story to share, I'm sure.