A Sad Day and a Kind Act

When I got home from therapy today, I saw a little bird on the ground. It was fluttering its wings and looking confused. It's very hot outside and we have many cats. When I went back indoors, I told my roommate about it. He's very good with animals and I knew if anything could be done for the bird, he would do it.

He went to the bird and realized it was a baby who had fallen out of the nest from the tree above. The nest was up far too high for him to return the bird, so he gave it some water to cool it down and got an old Easter basket from the cellar.   He put some grass and other stuff in the basket to serve as a nest for the bird, then placed stuff over his hands to keep from actually touching it when he put it in its new home.  We hoped the mother bird would see it and still feed it.

Later this evening, he went to check on the baby bird and it had died. He told me about this and I knew it had been the most likely outcome all along. It still saddened me though. The bird had such a brief little life and it ended in pain and confusion. And now I'm crying. Damn.

My roommate is one of my best friends in the world. He's also one of those people I feel very lucky to know because he has a depth of caring to him that I've rarely seen in other people. Even though he knew the bird probably wouldn't live, he did every thing he could to help it. It's the kind of action I've seen in him over and over again in helping stray cats or little dogs.  He has a truly beautiful compassion in him.

One of my favorite things to do is to sit in the living room with only the screen door closed and listen to him talking to Tinkerbell outside. Tink is a stray we kind of adopted . . . as much as anyone could adopt her because she's very skittish. In fact, I think my roommate is the only person who can hold her. Anyway,  I'll listen to him as he's talking to her and just smile to myself. I can't really hear what he's saying, but his tone is always so gentle and loving.  He speaks to that cat like she is the only person in the world who matters to him in that moment. And even if she doesn't understand what he is saying, I think she picks up on the emotion of it. It's why she always comes back to us.

You know, there is a lot of negative stuff in the world and a lot of callousness.  Sometimes it seems like the only way humans feel they can exist is by being as mean as possible. So really, I have to say I feel very blessed to get to live with someone who has a truly sweet soul.  I think it's one of the most remarkable things I've been allowed to experience in my life.