Mr. FixIt and I were sitting in the living room yesterday waiting for his friend to call. They were heading to one of the grandkid’s house to deliver a load of wood for their Christmas present. If it’s warm enough outside, we like to leave the inside door open so we can see outside through the full-length glass storm door. It is a rare occurrence that a bird hits this particular glass, but sure enough, one hit it hard just when Mr. FixIt was walking by.

He went over to look for the bird when I saw the cat make a beeline for the door. I jumped up and ran out in time to see the cat preparing to leap to the spot halfway up the wall where the bird was clinging to the bricks. Mr. FixIt shooed off the cat while I very carefully took the bird to a safe, quiet place. I could tell she was stunned because her head tipped slightly to the side, her beak was open, and she was breathing fast.

I follow the friend of a friend…Julie Zickefoose. She is an author, illustrator, birder, blogger, naturalist, and the widow of one of the founders of Bird Watcher’s Digest. Just the other day, she found a little titmouse rustling around in the leaves under a window at her house. She doctored it for a couple days, but the internal damage was too great and the bird died during a seizure. She has rescued many birds, and she does caution that it’s not for the amateur.

The little white-breasted nuthatch didn’t seem to be badly hurt, just stunned. I followed the steps Julie did and took the little bird to a quiet place and held her gently for a few minutes. I could see she was coming around a little. She closed her mouth, but her head was still a little tipped. I gently stroked her on each side of the neck, moving her head a little each way and after another couple of minutes, she was turning her head on her own. 

I asked Mr. FixIt to put the cat in the building and I gently placed the bird in the crook of a maple limb in the side yard. I left her alone for an hour to rest. When I came back out, she scooted up higher in the tree and soon flew off into the woods across the road to live another day. It felt good to help this little feathered friend get back on the wing. 

I baked cookies while Mr. FixIt was off unloading wood for the grandkids. Just a simple Turtle Cookie that I make every year made with those little square pretzels, Rolos, and pecan halves. I’ll bake more today. I’m not feeling particularly festive after losing my friend, Sparky over the weekend. I took advantage of the time alone to play some Christmas music, string some extra lights on the tree where the other ones burned out, and baked. 

I talked to my friend as I worked. I told her how sorry I was that she was gone. I apologized for not coming to her house and dragging her to the ER myself. I asked her to watch out over us all and that I’ll look for signs she may be around. Who knows…maybe she sent the little bird so I could save it since I couldn’t save her? The world is a mysterious place, isn’t it?

Sparky’s memorial service is Saturday afternoon. Several of us friends and classmates are arranging a proper charity to send money to. Sparky was a benefactor to several charities and was particularly fond of animals and food pantries. We arranged to donate to a pet food pantry that needed replenishing after sending off a truckload to our neighbors in Kentucky who are reeling from the devastating tornadoes over the weekend.

There will come a time soon when I will make the conscious decision to pull myself up by the bootstraps and not mope around over my loss. But, this is not the week for that. I will grieve and mourn and cry when I need to and laugh when I can. That’s the thing about grief. Joy and pain can exist at the same time. And eventually there is more joy and less pain. It is the nature of grief.

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“Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.”

Psalm 104:12 ESV