31 Awesome Things in 31 Days: Thing #24—Save a Bird, Walk a Dog, Feed a Family

An injured dove we found on our front porch after a day of adventuring.

We had some different ideas for today's awesome thing, but it turned into another day full of unanticipated opportunities instead. All three of us had the chance to act like champs, and I can say for my husband and daughter at least that they certainly were super champs. Allow me to enumerate specifics:

David's Good Deeds:

1. He let me have a nap this morning, during which he got Hollie ready to take a walk to campus with us, after which I was dropped off to study for my exams all day while he played househusband.
2. He went to the store with Hollie (no mean feat), fed her lunch, and cleaned up after all her messes (which included pouring out a sippy cup of milk on our armchair and sitting on a melted granola bar—see picture below).
3. He made two pans of his Mom's lasagna (one for us, one for our friends who just had a new baby) while watching Hollie.
4. When we got to our friends' house and dropped off some dinner, Dave walked our friends' dog (who hadn't been out of the house much since the new baby arrived) while Hollie and I played at a nearby park.
5. He also walked our friends' dog down to another friends' house who had just taken a big test this morning and brought them the rest of the cookies we made last night.
6. He got Hollie fed and managed to find a good box for bird rescuing while letting me scarf down some dinner first.
7. After an entire day of running back and forth and doing good deeds and keeping us fed and happy, David has also managed to go to the gym as I write this post. In fact, I think going to the gym is the first thing he has done for himself all day. He has seriously spent his entire day serving other people. He's even going to stop by the store on the way home to bring me some steel wool for Getting-Rid-of-Sir-Mousie Tactic #6. A serious champ, David is.

Dave's documentation of Hollie's granola butt.

Hollie's Good Deeds were just as impressive, because she is just a baby:

1. She slept almost the whole time David checked out his summer reading list from the library, and when she woke up she was lovely. The library was mostly deserted because the summer semesters don't start until tomorrow, and Hollie respected the silence for the most part.
2. Hollie went on several car rides today and never moaned or groaned about it. 
3. She ate mashed potatoes and pizza for lunch like a champ, and then she ate a lot of lasagna for dinner like a champ (she's sort of a fussy eater, so we love it when she eats).
4. She also shared a lime popsicle with David and entertained us with her sourpatch faces. 
5. She was just all-around lovely, in spite of being dragged here and there all day. Dave says she deserves a cupcake tomorrow. I agree. We all do.

Trying to save an injured bird.

As for me, I really only did one good thing today besides studying for my qualifying exams, and it happens to be the only thing that actually got documented (besides Hollie's granola butt).

After we dropped off the other lasagna and David walked our friends' dog, we came home around 7:00 p.m. to find a mourning dove on our welcome mat. I saw David walk up the steps with Hollie in tow and his keys in his other hand when he suddenly stopped and looked really confused. I thought maybe we had forgotten something at our friends' house. Then I looked down and saw the very frightened and very much not moving bird looking at us from the front door.

We both quickly backed away and decided to go into the house from the back. Ironically, the friend who just had the baby who was eating our lasagna volunteers at the local wilderness rehabilitation center, so I knew what to Google when we got inside the house. (Their dog David had walked tonight was actually an animal rehabilitated in a local shelter.)

I also ran across this helpful website with adorable pictures that tell you what to do if you find an injured bird. David got us all fed while I dug out an old towel we could part with, and then it was back in the car for Hollie and my chance to live out something I've dreamed about since I wanted to be a veterinarian at age 8—I came to the aid of an injured animal.

Gently placing a towel on the bird to help it stay calm. I'm not sure which of our hearts was beating faster at this moment.

Once the towel was on the bird, I scooped it up (David coaching me from the driveway to keep a "firm grip," knowing that I can be a little bit flimsy-fingered under pressure or when I'm nervous) and placed the bird in a shoebox Dave had poked with holes.

I guess this is what my "concentrated" face looks like. I'm sure this is how I look when I am occasionally asked to play hymns on the piano at church. "Don't mess up.....don't mess up.....don't drop the box with the little birdie in it...."

The wilderness rehabilitation center was on the south end of town, marked by a long cement wall with an animal mural painted on it (and enough prickly pear plants and red yucca growing in front of it to keep anyone from seeing about 75% of the mural). There was a tiny shack for dropping off the animals with a large, adorable seal on the door with a blue jay on it. When I opened the door, a loud buzzer went off that nearly made me drop my box (with the mourning dove suddenly moving wildly within it). I quickly entered the door and shut it to cut the noise, and my dove and I both settled down.

Inside I found four cages big enough for small animals surrounded by signs in bright colors asking that all cats and dogs be taken to the nearby animal shelter. The cages looked a bit weary. One in particular looked like two raccoons had mated in there and then simultaneously combusted. Aside from the cages, though, the drop-off shack was kept in neat order. While I waited, I filled out a card with information on our dove, and then I read over the "Wish List" written in colored chalk and cutesy handwriting listing several supplies that patrons could feel free to donate. There was also a wall of free educational pamphlets and invitations for 4th- and 5th-graders to take a tour of the center and fill out some fun worksheets on local animals.

Finally, a kind, middle-aged woman stepped in and asked me some questions about my bird. To my enormous respect, she opened up the box and used her bare hands to pick up the dove and inspect it. I just kept thinking, I wanted to be you when I was twelve. After a brief inspection, she carefully placed the dove back into the box and said they would see what they could do. The dove had flapped its wings in a promising way. We deduced that the nearby tree full of grackles probably had injured it from the looks of its back. When I mentioned the grackle tree, the woman said, "Oh, yes. And these mourning doves, they're just so darned friendly and sweet. They don't see it coming." I immediately repented of all the times I had cursed the mourning doves from eating all the bird seed we put out for the finches.

Swapping my injured dove for some free literature on animal rehabilitation.

I'm not sure what is to become of our little dove friend, but I did like getting to see the South Plains Animal Rehabilitation Center. As soon as my friend with the new baby feels like putting in some more volunteer hours, I think I'd like to go with her. 

And that is how Awesome Thing #24 ended up including saving a bird, walking a dog, and feeding a family. ACCOMPLISHED.

P.S. This is actually not the first animal rescue adventure I've been on, but I have no room to relate the other story. But Sharon, if you are reading this, I have certainly been reliving all evening our midnight white ghost kitten rescue adventure in Idaho Falls.

P.P.S. The only person we came across today in need of help that we neglected to aid was a middle-aged dude Hollie and I met in the park while David was walking the dog. He was wearing nothing but a pair of ratty old jeans and some sneakers, and he was casually swinging a very large hammer around as he lurked through the park. He looked a little homeless, truth be told, what with the no shirt and barely any pants and all. To my complete terror, he spotted Hollie and me and made a beeline toward us, swinging his hammer all the while. I could actually see headlines flash before my eyes about the woman accosted in the park in broad daylight with a hammer to the face by an insane shirtless man. I was just about to grab Hollie and run when the man shouted at me in a heavy Texan accent if I had seen something that had blown off the side of his house (I couldn't pick up quite what it was that blew off the side of his house...I can't even begin to imagine what he might have been looking for). I guess he was looking for it so he could hammer it back to the side of his house. I said I hadn't seen anything but that I'd keep my eyes open. Then he left. I was on alert mode until David showed up with the car. So, yeah. That's the one dude I wouldn't help out. Maybe if he had been wearing a shirt and wasn't swinging a hammer around like he was Bruce Dern in one of his more insane roles.