What I learned from a dying baby bird, Part 2

"If the birds are not on the back porch, Mommy, I'll know their mommy found them and took them back to their nest," Ali said. I kept looking for a chance to sneak outside and move the birds but never found one.

Early in the afternoon, Jeremy came through the front door. He usually comes home after 6:30 pm.on Mondays, so we were surprised to see him. He explained that he had an unusual schedule that day. I secretly asked him to move the baby birds from the back porch.

A few minutes later he called for me. "Can you bring me something to put this bird in? It's alive."

"Please," I begged, "just let it go. There's nothing we can do for it." But, just like his daughter, Jeremy was determined to do something. He brought the bird into the kitchen. I shuddered and refused to look at it. Soon he and the kids were digging in the flower bed outside our front door for worms to feed the bird. I stayed inside and cried.

When our neighbor walked by, Ali told her about the bird. The woman said she had recently found a baby bird in our parking lot. A vet told her to feed the bird soggy dog food every 20 minutes, keep it warm with a heating pad all night, and bring it to the clinic the next day. The vet then kept the bird until it could survive on its own in the wild.

A few minutes later, our neighbor was at our door with some dog food. She promised to get us the phone number for the vet as soon as she could. Then she drove out of our parking lot.

Meanwhile, Jeremy had fed the bird some little pieces of earthworm. The tiny bird, eyes still closed, opened his beak wide when the worm touched it. Then he cheeped. Jeremy named him Rocky, since he was clearly a fighter.

Over the next several hours, we fed Rocky, listened to him chirp, and watched him breathe. I started to believe he might survive. But our neighbor still was not home and still had not called with that vet's phone number. Will she remember? I wondered. Or will Rocky die in our house tonight?