Friday, June 25, 2010

RIP Baby Pheobe

I was hoping for a happy ending, but like you said A.G., these things often times go painfully.  Baby Pheobe died in my hand this evening, Mama never did come back for it and I hesitated intervening.  Finally I pulled the chick and fed it this afternoon, and then returned it to it's nest hoping Mama would come to her senses.  I checked on baby after dinner and it was weak and visibly upset after chirping and looking for food all day.  I brought it inside, trying to warm it's cold little body with my own.  The poor thing just eventually quit breathing after a couple of hours.  Luckily I had told the children I didn't think the bird would make it through the night, but that I would do everything I could just the same.

We had a garden burial at 9:00pm, Ella placed Baby Pheobe in the hole as Shaun cried his little eyes out.  These life lessons are tough to learn, but I like my children to know that all life is precious, no matter how small, and it is always worth saving (or at least trying to).

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As a side note it has felt like The Wild Kingdom here lately; this handsome devil was caught contemplating a tumble over a retaining wall in the strawberry patch.  This is the first turtle we have ever seen on property....oddly enough it didn't come from the direction of the woods.  It spent the afternoon marooned on the porch, hissing at me with contempt as I continually told the wee ones we couldn't keep it.  It has since been released.

5 comments:

Erin said...

Sorry to hear about the baby, I felt just as badly when I found that one of the baby doves was dead a month ago. It was hard to tell the kids since they had been watching them the whole time. You are right, all life is so precious.

Annie*s Granny said...

I'm so sorry, but you did what you could. Our four robin babies all fell from the nest in a windstorm. One died right away, one was so terribly injured I had to put it to sleep, in a plastic bag held up to the tailpipe of the car. It was painless for the baby, but not for me...I bawled like a baby, it was the only thing I had ever killed. Two were left on the ground to see if the parents would care for them, and one of those was moving around just fine from rose bush to rose bush, when it just keeled over and died in front of my eyes. That's when I had Mr. Granny return the only survivor to the nest. When we cleaned out the garden bird house this spring, it held the body of a perfect little sparrow baby. It had its feathers, and looked like it was about the right age for its first flight. I have no idea why it died in the birdhouse, but worried it may have got too hot for it. The roof had warped over the winter, though, so I think there's enough air circulation for the present batch of babies.

Kelly said...

Baby birds sure don't have statistics in their favor do they AG? Sorry you have had so many death experiences yourself. At least the turtle was a happy ending for us!

Dani said...

I'm so sorry Kelly. :(

Thomas said...

Oh no! That sucks Kel. Hopefully Shaun will learn something valuable for this experience.