Animal Tales III: The Blue Jay Confession

[tinhuvielartanis]

There's a reason why I'm so obsessed with saving animals. It's a reason steeped in thousands of generations of a long Jewish tradition: Guilt. That's not the only reason why I go out of my way to help the beasties. I do love them all very much and I think they have more of a right to live than we humans do. But guilt is always present as well.

When I was 5 years old, the Mother Unit brought home a baby blue jay that had not yet sprouted the feathers it needed to fly. It had apparently fallen out of the nest too soon and the Mother Unit didn't think the parents would be able to protect it. Knowing what I know now, I think that they would have continued to take care of it and protect it as best they could until that time it could fly. Either way, here was this baby blue jay. The Mother Unit bade me feed it every half hour and she made up this concoction comprised primarily of soaked bread. I did pretty well for a while until I got tired of doing it and decided I wanted to watch cartoons instead. I watched two episodes of The Flintstones, then remembered I hadn't fed the bird in over an hour. I ran out to the front porch to find the baby blue jay dead on the floor of the cage.

The Mother Unit was not pleased. And I was grief-stricken. I felt so incredibly guilty and, to this day, I think of that blue jay every time I'm called upon to help an animal in distress. In a way, I feel like I'm doing penitence for the life I helped to end and I've been doing it now for 33 years.

Comments

Raising something from the wild

[spencer-diehard.livejournal.com]

A million times I tried to rescue baby birds as I was growing up. A nest of young starlings fell through the chimney when I was a young adult, and I tried to save them, even. They ALWAYS die.

First time I ever "saved" a young bird was a few years ago --- a baby robin whose feathers weren't developed enough to fly. He was all the time hungry, and very receptive to being fed water-soaked mushy cat food with an eye dropper.

I LOOOOVED having my own 'piece of nature' trusting me, sitting on my finger, etc. One day, I came home from work, and a robin dive-bombed me from our roof. I thought it was his angry mother, and 'duck-and-covered' in fright. But, there he sat, looking at me eagerly -- it was our PET robin asking to be fed again.

Within the week he had apparently frightened a young neighbor boy with a similarly aggressive interest in being fed. The neighbor boy took a brick and smashed our robin dead. Another young neighbor boy witnessed the event, and knew that was "our" robin, so he came and told us...

Moral of the story, you don't fail a wild animal when you don't "take care" of them because they need to know that people are 'the enemy.'

Re: Raising something from the wild

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

You're right. That's why I focus on domestics; however, if I happen upon a wild creature that needs help I will either help it and return it to its natural state once it's ready or take it to one of the local rescue organisations so they can nurse it back to health and return it once it's ready.

That's awful about your robin. The boy who did that needs to have his head smashed in.

Re: Raising something from the wild

[spencer-diehard.livejournal.com]

Our initial reaction was anger. We went as a family to their door, and presented the smashed bird, and informed the father and son that the bird was our pet. My middle son was actually crying when we were there.

In retrospect, I feel kinda bad for the boy. He was young, and even though I think killing the way he did was gruesome, he was probably quite frightened --- birds don't behave like ours did towards humans generally. I mean, really, wouldn't it spook you, too?

Animal life is inherently fragile, though. Your jay bird has probably reincarnated a million times since that one lifetime, and he's fine.

Re: Raising something from the wild

[tinhuviel.livejournal.com]

Nah, animals don't really spook me. Humans on the other hand.... well, you know.