Our Summer With The Robin

by Connie Bieber
(Jackson, MI)

It was 6-23-09 and scraggle pusser the cat came inside bringing us a gift. There laying at my feet, on our ceramic tile entry, was a tiny pink and grey looking blob.

Upon closer examination we discovered a baby bird. I picked it up and sorrow filled my heart as I felt is was just too small to survive without its' mother. Its eyes were still closed and there were no feathers.

It also had a scratch on its side and a little bloody place near its backend. I figured this bird was no older than 3 days old when we received it.

I made a make shift nest out of a bowl and lined it with soft clothes and tissues. I feed it some canned dog food, antibiotic ointment on its cut and put it to bed waiting for nature to take its course.

Upon waking I went to the stand and dreaded opening its doors. I just knew that it would be cold and lifeless.

Instead, to my complete surprise,was the tiny bird with its mouth gaping begging to be fed. It made no sound as I filled its tiny body and it drifted back to sleep.

Each time I would feed it I gave out my best bird whistle...it heard me before it saw me. Each day continued the same as the one before. This tiny bird had somehow survived and as each day passed it grew before our eyes.

After searching images of baby birds on the internet we discovered it was a baby robin. We gave him plenty of sunshine in a cage hanging from our side porch.

I wanted him to hear the song of his family even though we could not return it. I bring him in at night and he has basically taken over our den. I buy him mealworms and earthworms. He loves blueberries and grapes.

We have had him for 6 weeks.I don't know if its male or female, we call it squeek-ums. We are tranforming our balcony into an outdoor flying space, preparing for a gradual release.

And it will fly away free like it was meant to.

But I will never forget the summer I became a mama bird and the lovely summer with our baby sqeek-ums.