I thought I could save life…

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 11:34 am

Yesterday afternoon, I went out to my garden to pick some runner beans and green beans for Pepper and just before I came back in, I noticed something was moving on the lawn. It was a bird, fully feathered baby Starling. It looked kind of lost. I went back to the house and came back with a couple small pieces of bread. I put one down and the bird came straight to eat it. After that, I put more bread out on my palm and the bird came to take the food from my hand. Wow…that’s something. I didn’t want to hang around too long just in case the bird’s parents were around. I went back in and started cooking for Pepper.

That bird was still eating the bread I left out for him. His beak was so messy with breadcrumb. After a while and there was no sign of its parents, I went out again with a small plastic tray. I filled it with fresh water. The bird put its beak down in the water and drank it three times. I’ve never ever seen the bird drink so close like that before. It was amazing. I have noticed that there was something wrong with its left wing. It kept standing on the injured wing all the time.

I went back to the house and searched on the internet to find out what I should do with that bird. I found someone said just leave it for the cat. That’s cruel. It made me worried because there were quite a lot of cats around here. I went to SSPCA website and found out that they have Animal Helpline available for you if you want to report an incident involving an injured, distressed or under-threat animals. So I give them a call. Their control centre staff said they would come to get the bird tomorrow if I could put the bird in a box. She told me to call back once I can manage to get the bird so she could get my address details.

I managed to get the bird and called SSPCA back to arrange the pickup. She told me to provide a small shallow tray of water for the bird, keep it in a place that’s not too hot and dark. She said there would be no need to feed it. She said someone would come to get the bird in the morning. I checked on it before I went to bed and it was fine.

Unfortunately the bird didn’t make it. I called SSPCA in the morning to let them know. It’s so sad. I really hope I could save its life. Goodbye bird.