Dove Rescue

So last night we affected a dove rescue.

It happened around 2030, when Nighean Bhan came in from getting dropped off by a friend from dinner.  "Dad"  she said, "there's a bird in the road that will not move."  I looked out the front window and sure enough, there was some kind of dove just sitting out on the street just to the side of the parking lot.

I got my shoes on and went out.  Sure enough, there in the dying twilight was a dove, a young one - probably a white wing- just sitting there, its head cocked to one side.  It let me walk right up to it.  I tried to grab it but it struggled and flew off a bit; I took another grab and got it: its head was definitively turning to the left and one eye was closed.  It had, I surmised, survived a predator attack or had smacked into a window head on and was disoriented.

I took into the garage and started looking for a box; while I was in there it launched for the ceiling twice but then came back down.  I found a box, got some food and water, and put it out on the back porch for the night. I will open the box top tomorrow morning in the event it wants to fly but other than that will leave it to do whatever it will do.

It is kind of silly, I know.  In the worst case, the bird will die tonight and I will have a burial first thing tomorrow morning.  At best, the bird will recover and fly away to encounter another window or predator simply let fly on a standing car.  Either way, my actions seemingly have no impact on my own life or the world at large.

But there is something there, something important at least to me.  I know cannot save every living thing - if I could, I probably would.  And that which is dead I can certainly not save.  But there is something within me that cannot let injured animals just succumb to injuries alone, waiting to be hit by a car or eaten by a predator or die in the cold or hot just standing there.  Where possible in these cases, no animal should die alone.

It will certainly never put money in my pocket or change the world.  But I believe, as Scrooge's nephew said of Christmas, "It has done me good and will continue to do me good.