Christmas Break

I have two things to write about that happened during Christmas break.

The first is about a Song Sparrow that we found the day before Christmas Eve. We spent the few days before Christmas and the day of the holiday at our grandparents house. John called for us through the window, he and Da (our grandfather) were watching a small bird running around beneath a bush, John was trying to catch it but so far had had no success. The fact that the bird was still there proved that something was wrong with it. After a minute or two John had it trapped beneath a stick, I picked it up and brought it inside to be put in a box with food and water, later it was moved to the shower in the bathroom.

We saw that it couldn't fly because it only had one primary on one of its wings and was also missing most of its feathers from its tail, most likely a cat had tried to catch it or something like that.

It lived two days in the unused shower before we took it home. We planned on caring for it until it had regrown it's feathers (about 6 weeks) and then would release it.

We put it in the cage that had previously housed many others: Chico the squirrel, Purdy the Goldfinch, the Bonaparte's Gull that we were thinking of naming Prince after Bonny Prince Charlie, Pip the baby Goldfinch and my other grandmothers lovebird Franky, as well as our pet dove Gypsy.

It lived another night caged in our bedroom and gained the name Sheepskin after one of the little birds in Bleak House. Anna denies that it was named Sheepskin and says that it's name was Ellie but this is my post and Sheepskin is a far better name then Ellie (she only came up with that name because she was looking at a piece of paper made out of elephant poo at the time.)

Anyway, back to the story, when I went to check on Sheepskin that evening she (I let Anna pick the gender since she HATED the name) was dead. I don't know what happened to her. It was eating food that morning and I don't think it died of fright since it had started calming down around us, it also wasn't killed by it's lack of feathers. My only guess would be that it couldn't find the dish of water that was available in the cage.

Now the second thing I wanted to write about would be Tinker, don't worry she hasn't died yet, quite the opposite, she has done something that I never thought possible. She just survived an entire year walking in front of/almost landing on the nose of and taunting a hunting dog who only suppresses his instincts to kill her because of his loyalty to us.

GOOD BOY THEO! You did an excellent job!

It has been hard but she's made it through a year and will hopefully make it another. She has become completely tame and will let you do almost anything to her including lifting her wing over her head and actually gently pulling her beak open with your fingers! She has such a small cute tongue!

I don't know the exact day we found her but I know was some time near the end of the year so on the calendar I put it on the last day of the year, since I also don’t know when she hatched I kind of put that as her hatching day too. So now I'm saying that she’s about two years old.

She also enjoys warm water being poured on her armpits

I have taken her into the shower with me a few times but she doesn't like the force of the water coming down so she she sits on the shower curtain and has a steam bath and is happy to be with me.

She is much more of a pet then any other of the creatures we have rescued and I love her much more then I have loved any of the others though not near as much as she loves me!

I am, of course not including Theo in that statement! I love Theo more then I could EVER love Tinker.