Dec. 14 2000 —— Feb. 11 2001
Sparrow
It was the Sunday before Christmas and had just come
home from church. Dad had been putting an air conditioner in.
I was walking to my room when he called out
“Hey Joanna come into the roof and look at this”.
I climbed up the ladder and lying on the insulation was a baby bird.
I looked up in the roof but I couldn’t’ find the nest. I picked up the bird
(which was feeling very hot being summer) climbed down the ladder
and walked to my room. I got out a spare wire mouse cage
and put the little bird in it. I went to the kitchen got some Vita Brits
and soaked them in water. When I put the dropper near the
baby birds mouth it started chirping for it.
It was so bright! I decided right then that it’s name
would be Sparky.
The next day was Christmas and we were going to Wodonga for a family
lunch so Sparky was put into a traveling cage and she shared
Christmas day with us.
About a week later I was getting very attached to this little girl Sparrow.
She was getting her feathers and when I went to Benalla one day she
and my mouse Pepsi came to. Pepsi and Sparky got on really well.
Sparky would give soft tweets and Pepsi would climb into her nest
and sleep with her.
Sparky came to church for two weeks with us as she needed to be fed.
By now she was as attached to me as much as I was attached to her.
She needed a bigger cage now so she went in with Pepsi who had a
large guinea pig cage as a home. She went on holidays with
me for two days and loved it.
By now she was flying around and I could take her outside knowing
she wouldn’t fly away. One day when I was outside our dog scared her
and she flew onto the garage roof. I stood on a chair and called her.
She was frightened because there were swallows flying all around her.
When she heard my voice she flew onto my head.
One of the funny things she did was when I was putting some washing in
the machine she flew in and got detergent on her feathers.
Sparky learnt to drink out of a mouse drinker.
When she had had enough she would make a high pitched pee pee sound
and then hop onto my shoulder. If I was holding her and Dad tried to
pat her she would make the same sound and clak her beak at him.
If she could she would bite Dad. She would always come when I called her
even if it meant flying through all the rooms in the house to find me.
It all ended on a Sunday afternoon. I was walking out a door and
Sparky tried to fly through. Her neck was broken and she fell dead at my feet.
We got a rose and I planted it next to her grave.
What hurts most is when people who never met her arch their
eyebrows just because I say she was a sparrow.
She was no ordinary sparrow and I will
miss her forever.
Joanna
| Sparky |