Saturday 24 November 2012

A Little Birdy Told Me

Our cats, Sadie and Monkey, are outdoor cats. I know this is kind of a touchy subject for some people, but Rich has had cats all of his life and they've always been outdoor cats. So, as a new cat owner, I just followed his lead.
Our cats are notorious hunters, so we quite regularly act as an impromptu animal hospital for all sorts of small wild life.  We've had multiple mice, birds, and even a squirrel spend some time living in our Urgent Care Center, otherwise known as our bathroom. Sometimes they make it, and we set them free and sometimes they don't, but it makes me feel like a good person to know I did what I could.

A few weeks ago, Rich had the dogs outside and came across a little birdy flopping around in the grass.  We took the cats in to give him a chance to compose himself and make his escape, but when we came back he was still rolling around on the lawn.  He was a young adult bird, so no mamma was coming to his rescue.  We brought him inside, made him warm and comfy and let him have a rest.
We noticed that he was missing his tail feathers, meaning he wouldn't be able to fly and I wasn't quite sure what to do about that.  I researched what kind of bird he was, a Thrush, and what to feed an injured bird of his kind.  He spent the night, and come morning he still hadn't eaten anything and I decided to take some action.
I called and tweeted around trying to decide what to do. I called Hamilton Animal Control, but unfortunately, they aren't licensed to take wild life.  The person on the phone was nice enough to give me a woman named Cara's number and I gave her a call.
I found out that Cara runs Urban Wildlife Care, and it is one of the only programs in the area that is licensed to take in injured and abandoned wildlife.  I drove my little birdy out to her office, and she took him in and fed him some worms and he will make a full recovery once his tail feathers grow back in!
I just wanted to spread some awareness for Urban Wildlife Awareness, because they are not government funded and rely on donations of money and supplies to be able to continue to take in animals.
The Hamilton Spectator wrote an article about them that you can check out here.
Visit their website here to learn more about the organization, what they do, and what items are on their donation wish list.





1 comment:

  1. How wonderful that there are people who will take care of even the littlest ones! I'm so happy to have discovered your blog... looking forward to more.

    Kacie
    http://www.acollectionofpassions.com/

    ReplyDelete