Fly Like an Eagle

Some of you may remember the little sparrow I found on my driveway a couple of weeks ago. If not, you can read the full story here.

The other day, when I took Tigro the tomcat in for vaccines, the vet was happy to tell me that Tino (as my younger son named the little bird) was alive and kicking. At the time it had seemed that he was partially paralysed because he couldn't seem to move his right leg (do birds have legs? Stick-figure legs...). Apparently, however, it was all psychological! When he was left on his own in a cage at the vet's office he got up and hopped around to take care of his "business." But, when people came around, he played dead.

I thought that was pretty odd, personally, but the vet swore it was true. She said little birds like Tino are literally petrified with fear when people touch them. They can even die of a heart attack from fear. Well, I'm glad our attempts to save him from death by cat didn't cause him to die of fear!

Some volunteers from the WWF came by the vet's office to get him and took him to a bird shelter where he is living happily ever after amidst his similars. In a cage (which I hate)...but she promised me that it's a *really big* cage that he and the other birds can fly around in.

Anyway, his fate would have been sealed if I had left him on the driveway that day. Tigro is turning out to be quite the hunter and, besides finding lots of dissected lizard bits scattered about on the patio, on two separate occasions we've found dead sparrows with Tigro using them for batting practice.

This one's for you, Tino!