Tami took Alice to Build-a-Bear a while back and for the past two months, she has been requesting to go back. We stress that Build-a-Bear is for special occasions like her birthday.
This also means she has been attempting to make everything a special occasion.
Not getting in trouble at school
Easter
Saturday
Mother's Day
Being sad for getting in trouble at school
Sunday
Every. Quiet. Moment. Of. Every. Day.
For months.
Now for today's drama.....
Today was the last day of school and it ended at noon.
The plan was to pick her up and meet Daddy for lunch.
I had 35 minutes between my work and having to pick her up. The plan was to quietly read in peace.
However.
At 11:42am Atticus starts barking up a storm at something in the backyard. I look out past the porch and can't see anything. "Fine! Go bark at nothing!" I open the porch and he immediately runs to the porch wall and proceeds to attack a small baby bird that has somehow ended up on our porch. I yell but the damage is done - he just did what dogs do. This is not his first time to catch a bird. He drops it right outside of the porch and it's gone so I take a shovel and throw it over the fence. I'm also close to tears because that poor baby bird.
I'm standing on the porch as Atticus is running around the yard and I'm just heartbroken.
I take a glance around and I notice a second little baby bird glaring at me from the bottom of the BBQ pit.
It is now 11:47am.
I wrangle the dog back inside and proceed to have a staring contest with the bird. I Marco Polo my mom and sister and the only thing I get back is my sister laughing in hysterics. I call my Beloved in a panic and he says he might could come home. I tell him I'm just going to leave it alone and see if it finds it's way off the porch before I get back.
We're still staring at each other through the door.
At 11:52am he decides to get brave and tries to fly - straight into the screen wall.
I can tell it's a baby Blue Jay and I also know that Blue Jays are MEAN! So I would like the thing to find it's way out before the family comes to look for it only at 11:56am all of my fears come true Daddy bird shows up.
Y'all.
I can't have the flock on the porch so I grab an oven mitt and head out the door. The plan was to pick him up and place him outside of the walls.
What happened was I scared it into flying a bit and he made it to the porch door entrance. I flap until he is clear of the porch.
It is now 11:59am and my nerves are shot.
I pick up Alice and I'm still a bit frazzled. She asks me why and I proceed to fill her in on my misadventures with nature.
She has only been at school for 4 hours and two of those hours were lunch and an ice cream party. I ask her if she's even hungry.
Alice: not really.
Me: well, you don't have to eat, you can just get a dessert if you like.
Alice: NO!! I want to eat!
Me: but you just said you weren't hungry!
Alice: I'm hungry for a Happy Meal!!
Me:.... I'm ill-prepared to handle this right now....
Alice: Did you just say Build-a-Bear?!
Yeesh.
We eat lunch, run an errand and return home. I go to make sure the bird has made it off the ground only to find it being fed by it's dad on the back porch.
Hells bells, this cannot be their new home.
Alice offers to hold Atticus inside, I put on my trusty oven mitt and head back out. I flap my hands until the silly bird is off the porch again. This time I stand there to make sure it doesn't end back up on the porch.
He looks disgruntled and mostly disheveled.
He FINALLY decides I mean business about the porch eviction and starts to flap his wings towards the fence line.
I have to get him out of the yard though because eventually Atticus is going to need to be in the backyard and it's going to be more sadness. I feel like having our dog take out 1/4 of the family is bad enough, I would rather him not claim half! So I kind of follow him down the fence line saying encouraging words until he squeezes himself through the chain-link fence.
Bless it be.
He can't fly that high and I have no power to put him back in a nest I cannot see so he is going to have to make this work! He will need to be mindful of snakes and hawks and free-roaming cats. However, it won't be Atticus on his tail!!
If this is the start of summer - one prayer tree might not do the trick. We will need the entire forest.
Until next time....
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