Aahh! What is that thing??

Eldon and I were watching Get Smart with my mom and Shauna last night when something small and dark scurried up to our sliding glass door and started trying to get in. I know, right? PANIC!!! Shauna squealed that it was a rat and we all, of course, clustered around the door to look (from behind the safety of our screen) clutching each other for dear life. It had little tiny wings and it was fluttering around, seemingly confused that there was a barrier to the warm, lighted room where it wanted to be. Oh, we thought, it's a baby chicken! Our neighbors down the street keep chickens (they also occasionally have peacocks that get up on their roof which we see on our morning walks) so we assumed it was theirs. Nope. We took it over there and no such luck. It was a little AWOL bird.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Turns out, it was a strange baby bird of some other sort. We don't know. Maybe a wild turkey? We have those in our area ... ugly beasts, if you ask me. Anyway, once we discovered the non-rat-ness of our intruder I immediately ran to get Eldon (who had just taken Chiara up for her bath) so Chiara could see the little baby bird. She loves that kind of stuff. (We'll explore in a moment where her nature-loving genes come from.) So we rushed to dry her off, get her dressed, and take her down to see the bird thing. In hindsight, this may have been a dangerously foolish thing to do. Baby + mystery animal = all kind of terrible possibilities.

Chiara loved it. I didn't. Eldon was quick to get gloves on, make a friendship, and feed the little thing. I watched from behind the screen. It vuluntarily hopped / flapped up on his hand, and proceeded to make its way all the way up to his head. I'm serious. (I made him take a long, anticeptic shower after this if he had any intention of sleeping in our bed that night.) It was the weirdest thing.

The main weird thing I'd like to address here is that HE LET THE BIRD DO THAT. Sick. That's all I have to say about it.

No it's not. We have no idea where that bird came from! It was either domestic and magically got into our yard after escaping its loving and happy home (hear that? it's cyber sarcasm) or it was deranged. Those are the only options, if you ask me. Normal wild birds don't just snuggle with humans. And neither of those options should immediately encourage a rational thinker to get all chummy with an odd and frankly, ugly, little creature. My heck.

Whew. Moving on.

We ended up taking it to the animal rescue place like 20 minutes from our house. By "we" I mean Mom and Shauna. Eldon and I put Chiara to bed and finished the movie. :) What a crazy adventure. Don't worry, I took pictures. :)

Yes, that's a saltine cracker and a tupperware container of water. What do we know?

Here's where it begins its ascent to Eldon's head. Talk about gross. This also marks the part where Shelli is freaked out and hides behind the screen door - lest the thing decide to fling itself her direction.

Oops.

This is so not okay. Eldon was all calm and "rational" the whole time (compared to me, I guess, who screeched and jumped around and stayed the freak away from it) but feeling the little talons on his neck did freak him out a little. :)

Do you see that facial expression? He's taunting me in this picture. I'm just saying.

Chiara had no qualms about the bird. She wasn't afraid in the least. When it hopped toward her she reached for it and only ONE of her parents (I'll let you guess which one) thought that might be a negative thing. This I can tell you, she doesn't get her nature-loving-ness from me. No siree. I hate nature. That's not true. I hate being in or around nature. I love photographs and from-the-cleanliness-of-a-paved-path kind of nature, but if any of it gets on me all enjoyment is lost. I don't like pokies in my shoes, I don't like dust on my face, I don't like plant residue on my hands ... I don't like any of that crap. I'm not the world's most eager camper. Girls' camp was like a nightmare for me. The shower immediately following my return from girls' camp was probably sixteen days' worth of water.

But I digress.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, that dirty little bird.

I've been babbling while the video I took of the experience loads, but it just told me there's an error. Bummer. Maybe I'll try to post it again later. Mostly it's me screeching Eldon's name (from my hideout in the house) as he doesn't show enough propensity to protect our child from the big, imposing threat of a tiny baby bird. :)