I guess I'm posting pretty often. So don't think that I'm going to be putting up a long post every day. It just happens to be close together.
This is the story of a baby mockingbird that we found in the yard. We are handraising it, and having a lot of fun. It, on the other hand, is not having a lot of fun. I decided to tell this from the perspective of the chick. So, here goes...
I was born on July 27, 2009. My mother took wonderful care of me for most of my life. I lived in a nice, soft nest; and Mommy tended to my every need and cry. I had several brothers and sisters too. Life was just wonderful in every way. I was so happy.
One day, when I was about a week and a half old, I was trying to learn how to fly. It looked so easy when Mommy did it. I was practicing, and everything looked like it was going to be really good until a big gust of wind came and blew me off course. It happened like this: I was on the branch where my nest was, and as I said, I was hopping around and a big gust of wind came, and knocked me right off the branch. I screamed, terrified, hoping Mommy would come and rescue me. But although she saw my predicament, she didn’t seem to be able to do anything to help me. I complained loudly, but she didn’t do anything. Finally she decided there was nothing that could be done, and went to find some food for my siblings.
Suddenly, a huge creature, such as I had never seen, walked up to me and tried to catch me. I shouted for them not to do that, but he ignored my plea. He chased me around for a long time, and when he finally caught me in a box, I let him know just what I thought of him. But this didn’t seem to deter him at all. He told me that I needed to just relax, and that everything would be alright. He even said that he was going to take care of me. I knew he was lying. He meant to make a meal out of me, for sure. Why else would he capture me in such a cruel manner? Take care of me? Hmmm… He must have meant take care of me, like eat me or something like that. I didn’t even want to think of that.
But he didn’t eat me right away. He carried me in his prison box a long way, and then set me down in a place I had never seen before. I was still in the prison box, but the sides were clear, so I could see a little bit.
Then these huge creatures, even bigger than the first one, came and stared at me. They must have thought I didn’t look good enough to eat at the moment, so they just left me in that horrible prison box. Life wasn’t wonderful anymore. I knew at any moment that something worse could come soon…
After a long time, one of the bigger creatures put its hand into the box and tried to grab me. I wasn’t feeling too good, and I missed my chance to escape. So this thing held me in its hand, and looked at me, and talked towards me. It was the greatest trial of my entire life. Whatever happened to the good old days?
Finally, after a long time of looking at me, and discussing what to do, they took some sugar water in an artificial beak, and stuck it down my throat. It was very uncomfortable, but at least it tasted good.
Later, I felt a little better, and when they took me out of the prison box again, I saw my chance at freedom. Mustering all my strength, I wrested myself from their grasp and ran away at top speed. But they soon had me imprisoned again.
The worst thing was when they took some pieces of worm and tried to shove them down my throat. They forced my mouth open and stuck their artificial beak thing down into it. They put big pieces of worm in there, not nice little pieces like I used to get when life was easy. Oh, how many bad things have happened to me already in my short life!!!!
They apparently intend to keep me prisoner for life. But I guess they couldn’t do much to me that’s worse than they already have. I have a plan though. I am going to be so grumpy and mean and irritable and nasty to them when they come to feed me that they’re just going to get tired of it and let me go. I think I’ll start right away…
