The Bird

For the first time ever, I'm actually upset with the puppy.

These dogs have gotten into things, wrecked things, and created all sorts of chaos and some interesting situations.

When one of the dogs ate my $200 shoes that I hadn't even had a chance to wear once, I was briefly upset - I mean very brief, like a few minutes.

When they get into things and I have to clean it up, I'm upset for only seconds if I get upset at all. Mostly I just laugh at them.

Today I heard birds outside going crazy. I know it's a little odd, but I can recognize some of the different messages that the birds are conveying. No, no, not like Doctor Doolittle and nothing complex, but there's a kind of chirp they do when they're calling to a mate, a chirp that means the sun is setting soon and everyone flies back to their homes (I think that's where they're going, anyway), and a chirp that signals danger to other birds. The squirrels also send out a danger signal and the birds seem to pay attention to that, too.

Anyway, I heard that frantic chirping that signals danger. I looked outside and saw the puppy sniffing at something. There were birds swooping about around the puppy. I knew that the puppy was close to a baby or an egg.

As fast as I could, I ran outside. I saw a spot of red in the grass.

No, oh, no.

Then I saw it. A bloodied bird.

I felt horrible.

I put the dog in the house and went to see if the bird was alive or dead. It was alive. I didn't touch it. I went back into the house and waited because the other birds were still swooping around.

The bird wasn't getting up, so I thought I'd go see if I could help it. We've nursed birds back to health before - even ones where we were told there was no hope.

There was no way. It was really bad.

He was alive and alert despite the mortal injury. I thought I should euthanize him, but I didn't know how I would do it in a way that would be painless.

I wanted to hold him so he wouldn't be alone as he died, but that would scare him rather than comfort him. So I partially covered him to keep him warm (at least he wouldn't die feeling cold on top of everything, right?) Then I left him alone.

The birds around squawked for a long time.

I really was upset. I even cried.

Yeah, I know it's dumb to cry for a bird.

I thought about how God says not even a sparrow will fall without His permission. (Is it without His permission or just without His knowledge?) I was thinking that if I'm feeling a kind of love and a sense of sadness for this bird, God must feel something too because He loves the birds too, I think.

So the best I could do was pray for the bird and tell myself that God really would take care of it.


I look at the puppy and all I see is what she did to that bird. I know that animals do these things. I know it's natural. Still, I'm upset. So how crazy is that!