Friday, June 26, 2009

Dead Bird

No, this isn't like a 'Dead in the Water' political piece, or a 'Lame Duck' whatever. This is about the baby quail my kids brought home yesterday. This is how the story goes:

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Guess what?"

"I don't know. What?"

"We found a bird and I think it's a baby chicken. Can we keep it? Please? Please? Please?"

This is where you get to see how cool I am because I said....

"Why, of course you can keep it! What kind of mother would I be if I didn't let you keep every creature that crosses your path?"

I called a friend who brought over food and a heat lamp left over from their days of quail/chicken rearing. Then I put my kids in bed, put a movie on for me and Scott and then went to bed.

Time: middle of the night.

sniff.

"Katie? What's wrong?"

"The birdie died."

Which is how I spent the rest of the night with my daughter asleep next to me. Very sad. This is the conclusion for the kids, but not the parents. I love how in movies, the parents always oblige their children with the burial of the pet they loved and adored. Is this what I'm supposed to do? Am I supposed to draw out the process with a lengthy funeral filled with tears and sorrow? Over a wild baby quail that should've been left alone in the first place? I just don't know.

4 comments:

  1. Now you get to teach them about life and death and the dangers of aviary flus and terrorism and hygene and lots of other scary things.

    OR you can throw the bird away and tell them better luck with their next animal rescue.

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  2. I'm sorry about your children's birdie. Regardless of what you choose to teach them, I hope there is swift healing for them.

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  3. If it wasn't less then one mouthful. Plus, um...GROSS! It was all twisted back the way birds look after they've been dead for a while. Sick! Not in a good way.

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