Russell

I am writing this post out of order because I think it's important. This is about something that happened today, August 22nd. My brother-in-law Dave came home from shul and told me that there was a "big bird" sitting in the middle of the street, obviously injured. Someone had put up a traffic cone nearby to alert drivers. Now, why he told me this, I haven't the foggiest notion. Knowing me as long as he does, he had to know that there was no way I was going let an injured bird get hit by a car if I could help it. I went out to look. The big bird was not what you'd find on Sesame Street...it was a crow.
I approached him as gently as I could and he was very sweet. He let me stroke his head and his back. From up close crows are quite beautiful. They seem to be solid black from a distance but their plumage is actually iridescent, with subtle shades of blue and purple. I brought him into the house and called a few wildlife rehabilitation places. The only one that I found that was open was waaaaaaay out in the boonies in New Jersey. I put Russell (oh, I forgot to tell you; his name was Russell and that's him in the photo) in a box and was ready to leave when Chayie appeared at the top of the stairs. I told her I had a bird down in the basement. Remember how I told you I had ringing in my ears? I think the shriek she let out blew any chance of my tinnitus ever being resolved. She screamed as if I was one of her kids. I guess she's entitled: she's been doing my laundry and cooking my food for four months. I snuck out the side door, cranked up the GPS and headed out to the Raptor Trust in Millington, NJ. They were happy to accept Russell and said they'd do everything they could for him; young crows, they informed me, are very susceptible to West Nile Virus that they contract by being bitten by an infected mosquito. I left there feeling good about myself. I felt I had done a mitzvah (good deed). When I got back I asked Chayie what she was all bent out of shape about. She said that I should bear in mind that I was not the only one who had gone through hell because of my illness. She had, too. As had my brother and my kids and my mom and anyone else who cared about me, to one extent or another. She said that I'm busy with my blog and I've personalized my journey and I've forgotten that it touched and affected many other lives. Because of the possibility that my birds were a mitigating factor in my winding up in extremely critical condition, she felt that by handling a bird, any bird, under any circumstances and even just for a few minutes for totally altruistic reasons, I was being completely irresponsible. Worse, my behavior was an insult to everyone who worried about me and came to visit me and sat with me and prayed for me. I'm writing this post to go one record as saying that I'm not sure I agree with any of that, but I love my sister and I understand and respect how she feels. And if another injured bird comes along, I'll do exactly the same thing.

PS It is now Tuesday, August 24th, two days later. I just called the Raptor Trust to see how Russell was doing and they told me that he had died. He had some kind of central nervous system problem and when he took food he gurgled a little so he probably had an obstruction of some kind as well. The woman I spoke to, Laura, thanked me a few times for bringing him in, all the way from Brooklyn. So I accomplished two things:
1. Although Russell went to birdy heaven, he didn't get there by being hit by a Mack Truck.
2. My bringing him out there turned out to be a nice little kiddush hashem.