Look what the cat dragged in

A baby bird

It can't even fly yet.

I had just gotten back from taking Chloé to the vet (it's not good news) and stopping at Florosny for the planting soil for the hydrangeas I will plant down where I have been axing out the tree stumps -- wound up buying the plants instead at Tony's suggestion, since at 50% off, they are moving fast; there's only so much I can fit in the car at once, so I'll go back for the planting soil tomorrow -- when I heard Shadow meowing up a storm outside the living room door.

I wondered if she felt sick after her vaccinations, or what.

A moment later, she appears at the door and walks in with something in her mouth. It didn't look like the usual spider mice she and Chloé hunt.

"Shadow! What do you have?" She dropped it at my feet, and I see it tumble out, wings opening. A little bird.

"Sal chat! Leave it alone!" I cried at her, bending to get the little bird before she did again, except, she didn't want it. It didn't appear too injured, either, but it couldn't fly.

I managed to pick it up, roll it into my sweater, grab the hem of the sweater in my mouth so that I could go open the attic trap and get the old mouse cage. I did all that without crushing it.

Then, I went and got one of the nests from our bird nest collection (you never know what will come in handy), filled the little dish with water, found the bird grains -- on hand for occasions like this (I haven't managed to save one yet) -- and collected a handful of grass and leaves.

After a bit, it calmed enough to start peeping, and I could hear a grown bird just outside in the linden tree peeping the same way. So, I took the little one outside under the linden, and they started peeping for all they were worth, back and forth. I can't get up in the tree easily, and I have to run to my sister-in-law's because she picked up her son and my nephew Justin at the airport this morning. The boys were returning from the States, where her son had spent three weeks at my sister's near Philadelphia (Happy Birthday, Elizabeth! Yes, I am getting going), and my son and another friend from the States, Pips (Hi, Lyca! Yes, the boys are working, but the weather is atrocious), are meeting me there.

Sam and Pips are filming for a documentary Pips' mother is producing, telling the story of -- oh, it's a long story! Imagine a former model for Balenciaga from the Philippines, who has also done television, and twice won the carnaval queen in Sao Paolo, the first Philippina to ever win that distinction. They are doing her story. Gives Sam a chance to try his hand at doing something he has dreamed of doing -- filming and making films.

So, now I have the mouse cage out on the deep living room window sill, where the little bird can get fresh air and chirp and peep back and forth with his family. I hope that will encourage him to live until we can figure out how to engineer his reuniting with his family.

It was very windy and rainy today. I wonder if it happened that he (or she) fell out of the nest on a first flight? Which made me wonder if Shadow hadn't actually merely brought it to me, thinking I might be of more help to it than she could be. You never know with her.

I also bought two maples, which I will tell more about later. I am really late.

Really.

....