Caring For My Two Babies.

by Cathy Forsyth
(Rohnert Park, CA)

I had just put our newborn baby boy down for a nap, when our seven year old son came running in.

He had found a tiny bird on top of our patio roof and wanted us to take a look. Sure enough, there it was, just a couple of days old with no feathers at all.

After being unable to find out where it may have come from, we decided that we would have to try to take care of it.

Upon showing it to my neighbor, she suggested that we bring the bird down to the local bird rescue in town. When I placed the call the woman on the phone said that she couldn't possibly take any more birds but that she would come right over and teach me how to take care of mine.

Soon, she was at my door armed with a box of baby birds that she had been caring for and a large manual for me to read.

Then she said,"You know that you must take these baby birds with you wherever you go!". I already had my hands full trying to care of our newborn son, and taking on another "baby" wasn't what I had in mind. "Also," she said, on Wednesday evenings, we have baby bird parenting classes that you should come to." I politely declined.

So began the most intense two weeks I had experienced in a long time. Every 30 minutes I would feed the baby bird then turn around to feed our newborn son every two hours then change diapers and clean up after the baby bird.

The woman from bird rescue was so pleased that she asked if I could take in a whole nest of baby crows. I declined that as well.

Finally, the baby bird was old enough to be released and with a sigh of relief, we let him fly off. The very next day I hear a tapping at my glass sliding door.

I look down and what do I see; but another baby bird that had fallen out of a tree with it's beak pressed up against the glass!

I opened the door and it just hopped right in.

So began another baby bird story.