bird rescue

Noah and I were outside yesterday and noticed a mourning dove absolutely freaking out.  She was yelling and spinning around in circles and flapping her wings.  We watched her for a few minutes, wondering why she went nuts.  Then Jason the cat appeared with a little gray bundle in his mouth.  He dropped it proudly at my feet.  It was a baby bird.  I started putting two and two together and realized it was a tiny mourning dove.  The crazed mother bird was nowhere in sight, and the baby was too young to be out of the nest.

Noah tried to feed it some milk.  We also offered it a worm and some seeds.  I even made it some baby cereal.  My nephews were here during the whole bird crisis, and one of them named it Snackpack.  While Snackpack was resting under the heat of a lamp, Jason attacked a baby robin.  We rescued it from him, and fortunately, it was big enough to fly away on its own.  We did some research on the internet and learned a whole lot about mourning doves.  I knew we were in over our heads.  After several phone calls, I finally got in touch with a wildlife rehabilitation person who agreed to raise the baby.  I'm keeping her number handy,  because I have a feeling we may need her again, with Killer Jason on duty.

Best wishes, little Snackpack!  If we see a mourning dove flying around in a few weeks, we'll assume it's you. :)