Orphans

Larry (the Starling) Bird 

Larry was a baby starling that had fallen out of its nest.  It had only downy feathers and still appeared to be blind.  Penny (my wife) placed it into an old shoe box filled with some soft material and covered it with a feather duster.  For the next three weeks she fed it bugs, worms, hamburger and left-over cat food.  By Penny's vigilance and a small miracle, that baby bird managed to survive.

When it came time for Larry to fly, we took it into the backyard so we could send it off to join the bird world - but Larry had other plans.  He flew from Penny's finger to my head and back to Penny's finger.  Finally, Larry flew up into a tree and we both were relieved.  When Penny came back out of the house to make sure that Larry was really gone, he flew down from the tree and landed on her head.

We couldn't get rid of Larry.  Penny took him to the barn when she would go feed Sabra.  Larry would sit on  her shoulder the whole time.  He was so tame that anyone could handle him.  Finally, I took him to the golf course and released him there, but an hour later the pro at the club called us to come back and get the bird that was flying down and landing on the golfers heads as they were trying to tee off.

We continue to set Larry free each day until one day, he didn't return.  I would like to say that his story had  a happy ending, but I found a dead starling in the swimming pool not long after that, and I'm not sure it wasn't Larry.  It was years before I could bring myself to tell Penny.