Bird Troubles

Well, today began with an eventful morning. Occasionally we can hear birds in the vent above our microwave; we usually just turn on the ventilation fan and it scares them off. However, this morning when Aaron did this the bird was a little too close to the fan blades and they hit the bird. After a bit, we could hear it scurrying around in the air duct unable to fly. Not wanting to have a--please forgive the grotesqueness of this next statement--rotting bird carcass in our air vent, we decided we'd have to take the microwave down to get it out. When Aaron finally figured out how to remove the microwave from its perch above the oven the moment of truth arrived. I was scared to take it down because I could just see this crazed bird flying at us and pecking at our faces, but all the hard work was to no avail because when the microwave came down the bird was nowhere in sight. It had made its way up a foot or two to a bend in the duct and though we could still hear it, we couldn't get to it. Thankfully, there was no blood splattered around--which was fully expected based on the awful noise the fan was making when the poor little thing was stuck in it--but there was a single feather. So, who knows if it will be able regain its ability to fly and make its way up the vertical pipe to the roof or if it will become a permanent fixture of our house.

For some reason we tend to have funny things happen to us when animals are involved; like one time we were on a walk down a country road near our home and we passed a very large heard of cows. Once we got a bit past the heard, we looked back and saw all the cows following us, but as soon as they realized we had stopped and looked back, they stopped walking, too...this went on for like five minutes.

OK, so since I am on this animal story kick I thought I would share one story that I don't ever want to forget...the day that Aaron saved a skunk! One rainy night, Aaron and I were driving not far from our home and we saw something in the middle of the road. Aaron swerved and narrowly missed what we decided must have been a skunk as we began to faintly smell that unmistakable smell that only comes from our stinky, black and white friends. But we weren't sure because whatever it was just didn't look quite right. Out of curiosity, Aaron decided to turn around and go back to determine just what it was. By the time we had flipped around, three or four cars had passed by and we were sure if we hadn't hit it then one of these cars must have.

So, we got back to the spot and to our amazement, un-hit by any of the cars there in the middle of the road was a skunk with a peanut butter jar stuck on its head! No joke! It was such a sad sight in our headlights because it was all soaking wet and muddy from the rain and the jar was all steamed up because of its struggle to get out. It had been working to get out for so long that it was exhausted and just sitting there breathing in and out. We didn't want to just leave it there to die with a peanut butter jar on its head, but c'mon, it was a skunk! Being the huge animal-lover he is (yeah right!), Aaron timidly got out of the car, went up to the skunk and while standing as far away as possible, gently reached over and tugged at the jar...it was stuck pretty good. So he regained his composure, took a deep breath and in one swift motion reached in once again, grabbed the jar and threw it across the road...after all, maybe the skunk wouldn't come out of the jar but at least it would be off the road. Well, the jar did come off and went flying in one direction while the skunk (and Aaron) went running in two other directions. Aaron was my hero (and the skunk's) and thankfully didn't get back in the car stinking!

We like to think that skunk went on to live a long fruitful skunk life, but in reality it was probably hit by a car the very next week with a mayonnaise jar stuck on its head. At any rate, I guess the moral of this story is that you win some and you lose some; the skunk would live to see another day, this little bird friend of ours...not so likely.