For our donation last month, we thought it would be nice to send a check to On the Wing Again, a bird rehabilitation group back in Texas that took in two baby birds (there’s a picture of one of them in a previous post)we found at different times while we lived there, in appreciation of the work they do. Sadly, it appears that the organization is no longer operating, so we decided to look for a similar group locally. We found Wild for Life, who I’d also like to mention have a very informative web site with some great practical information on what to do if you find an animal that you think needs help. We sent them a donation and have also added their site to our links page.

I’ve hand raised several birds as well as cats, dogs, and pet rats, and it is very messy, round the clock work. It’s always amazed me how helpless birds and many mammals are at birth, and what a great job their parents do raising them just by instinct. A sparrow or rat, for instance, comes out looking like something that wasn’t quite ‘done’ yet – naked, blind, with skin so translucent you can see the organs inside, absolutely helpless. Getting the temperature wrong by just a degree or two either way or not feeding the exact right amount at the right time can doom the little one you are hand raising and yet an animal or bird parent with a brain about the size of a gumdrop can do it (usually in multiples!) perfectly.

Knowing the amount of work that goes into caring for orphaned wildlife, and also the importance of making sure that the babies grow up knowing how to survive in the wild, we have the greatest respect for anyone who takes on such a responsibility. As I write this, I am thinking that in addition to the donation we just made to Wild for Life, I am going to write a letter to the folks who used to run On the Wing again (even though they are no longer operating) to thank them personally. When we found those birds we knew we wouldn’t have the time to give them the care they needed and having that resource available was a wonderful thing. I am sort of feeling a bit ashamed, because at the time I was thinking “we did a good thing, we saved a life” but actually it was someone else who saved a life. We were just kind of in the right place at the right time to help that process along a bit.