Bubba

A couple of Sunday's ago, Jack mysteriously disappeared from his church class. How do I know? Because I'm his teacher. My instincts told me he was ditching, he had ridden his bike to church that day. I go outside all prepared to yell at him, and there he is, lying on his tummy in the grass, big tears in his eyes, nose to beak with a baby bird. He asked if we could take him home, and I told him we'd move him over to the bushes, and if he was still there when church was over, we'd take it home. After church, there was the bird, right where we had left it, so I picked him up, dumped out my pre-church Diet Coke, and put the bird in the cup. Luckily, Ty didn't see this happen, because half-way home when I held up the cup to show the kids, Ty tried to jump out of the moving van. He doesn't do so well with non-domesticated animals. We got home, made a nice shoe-box home for the bird, and I googled what to feed them. Turns out, oatmeal and crushed up hard-boiled egg yolks are great. I was a little worried about having to chew up the food and spit it into it's mouth, but a straw cut at an angle is perfect. He was really good at eating too. It had to be done every 1/2 hour, from dawn till dusk. We kept Bubba, as Jack named him, until he started flying around the kitchen and taking baths in the dishwater in the kitchen sink. Jack cried and cried when we let him go, but I told him Bubba needed to go be a real bird. We took him outside, gave a little toss, and off he went. We still think we can hear Bubba talking to us sometimes.
Look how cute!

Bubba in his new homeHungry Bubba. That little beak could open so wide!

Two days ago, Ty comes in and says "don't be mad, but Jack just found another baby bird on the ground and brought it home for you to take care of". I went outside, and there was this scrawny, ugly, bug-eyed (but they weren't open yet) transparent thing with a massive bright yellow beak that had a tongue like thing when it opened. I fed it "rescue" food...boiled and cooled coke, and then took it back where the boys found it. The nest wasn't too high, so we were able to put it back. I couldn't even touch the poor thing without tissue, it looked NASTY!

I never particularly liked birds, but I've grown attached lately. As long as they have feathers and real eyes.