Kate, the Bird Girl
Kate is fully determined to be the neighborhood animal rescue child. Yesterday after school she came flying up the steps to the house, beating on the doorbell like there was no tomorrow. I opened the door and she rushed past me, "I need a towel right away."
She proceeded to tell me that there was an injured crow near her bus stop that the local kids were pestering and she HAD to save it, and tore back out of the house, one of my best bath towels in hand. I got my shoes and coat and went after her.
True to the telling, there was a crowd gathered around an injured crow, trying to coax it into a box. Another area mother had taken the towel from Kate and lined the box with it, and fearlessly picked it up and plopped it into the box. By the time I crossed the street, Kate was proudly carrying the box toward me and the other mother said, in thickly accented English, something about packing it with coffee grounds to help it heal. The crow seemed to be in bad shape, but it was alive and alert and I couldn't stand to see it suffering any more than Kate could.
I called four veterinarians, two bird rescue volunteers, the Washington Department of Wildlife, and Seattle Animal Control before I found someone to take the bird off our hands. Kate and I ended up driving the bird across Seattle during rush hour to drop it off with Animal Control, who have an agreement with a wildlife rescue organization to collect injured wild animals found in the city. I told Kate that was the best we could do.
Later in the evening, Kate announced to the game group that if the bird lived she was going to call it Miracle and if the bird died she was going to call it Charcoal. She also filled us in on how the story of the injured pigeon ended (involving an "Evil Church Lady" who "stole" her pigeon and recycled the box the kids had left for it). Kate got her whole class involved in delivering a complaint letter to the doorstep of the church, demanding that the Evil Church Lady give "Snowy" back, and added a line (a lie for dramatic effect, Kate admitted) about how she had raised the pigeon from an egg.
Kate is fully determined to be the neighborhood animal rescue child. Yesterday after school she came flying up the steps to the house, beating on the doorbell like there was no tomorrow. I opened the door and she rushed past me, "I need
She proceeded to tell me that there was an injured crow near her bus stop that the local kids were pestering and she HAD to save it, and tore back out of the house, one of my best bath towels in hand. I got my shoes and coat and went after her.
True to the telling, there was a crowd gathered around an injured crow, trying to coax it into a box. Another area mother had taken the towel from Kate and lined the box with it, and fearlessly picked it up and plopped it into the box. By the time I crossed the street, Kate was proudly carrying the box toward me and the other mother said, in thickly accented English, something about packing it with coffee grounds to help it heal. The crow seemed to be in bad shape, but it was alive and alert and I couldn't stand to see it suffering any more than Kate could.
I called four veterinarians, two bird rescue volunteers, the Washington Department of Wildlife, and Seattle Animal Control before I found someone to take the bird off our hands. Kate and I ended up driving the bird across Seattle during rush hour to drop it off with Animal Control, who have an agreement with a wildlife rescue organization to collect injured wild animals found in the city. I told Kate that was the best we could do.
Later in the evening, Kate announced to the game group that if the bird lived she was going to call it Miracle and if the bird died she was going to call it Charcoal. She also filled us in on how the story of the injured pigeon ended (involving an "Evil Church Lady" who "stole" her pigeon and recycled the box the kids had left for it). Kate got her whole class involved in delivering a complaint letter to the doorstep of the church, demanding that the Evil Church Lady give "Snowy" back, and added a line (a lie for dramatic effect, Kate admitted) about how she had raised the pigeon from an egg.
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