My sister Martha is a wonderful artist. Not long ago, she read a post from the beautiful blog: A Fanciful Twist. http://afancifultwist.typepad.com/. The post was about embracing the beauty of nature. Martha had been particularly busy that week, and decided to take a moment for herself before her three teenagers woke up.Energized by the beauty and wonder of the world around her, she opened her front door to skip outside into the garden of inspiration. Fairies were sure to be there welcoming her, along with the birds, butterflies, and flowers brimming with creative guidance and a spiritual muse or two.
What happened instead was this: Two birds flew into her house. Martha has 2 Golden Retrievers, and well, they aren't called "bird dogs" for nothing. Tweety #1 was the lucky one. She navigated herself back outside. Tweety #2 wasn't so fortunate.
The dogs, Sunny and Stormy, began doing what they do in nature - chasing feathered flying things. Tweety #2 flew into a window and fell. Sunny rushed to the rescue, and happily picked her up. She then began running around the house with pride. Martha reacted the same way that I would and began screaming: "No! Sunny, no! Drop it, drop it! No! Aughhhhhh!!!! Cookie! Cookie!"
Sometimes a bribe can work in a case like this. Sunny fell for it, and dropped Tweety in hopes of a cookie. Unfortunately, before Martha could react, Stormy picked up the bird and began to run around the house wagging her tail proudly, certain that she too would be rewarded with a cookie.
Martha began screaming: "Somebody, help me!" as she chased Stormy. Sunny smiled at the turn of events and began chasing Martha. My poor sister was sobbing, pleading, bribing Stormy with treats, back rubs, stock options - anything and everything that she could think of. By now, her three teenagers began to cautiously emerge from their rooms, certain by the sound downstairs that their mother was being attacked. Her oldest son was at the ready with a baseball bat. Her daughter and younger son had their cell phones, ready to press "send" after already having pressed 9-1-1.
I'm sorry to report that Tweety #2 didn't make it. We can only hope that the flight into the window was when she met her Maker. All we know for sure is that Tweety had a nice burial and is in a better place.
Martha's moral for this story: When looking outside for magic, remember to close the door behind you.
Visit Martha's blog: http://mjornaments.blogspot.com/
4 comments:
Oh the memories this post conjures up! And you tell it so well. :) Hope you're having a great weekend sis.
Love,
Martha
What a fabulously funny story! I was all set to settle in for a tale of inspiration that would fill my soul with peace and encouragement. Instead, I laughed heartily at the picture of your sister chasing dogs through the house and the dogs utterly oblivious to her horror at the situation. Thank you for a great laugh!
That is insanity! Wonderful story. I'm trying to imagine Martha, through knowing you so well...I think I'm seeing, and hearing, the picture. :-)
And, go figure...I can really relate. May I?
We've had not one, but two birds in our house. And both times, they didn't enter through a window. Nor did they enter through a door. They entered through: A cabinet. Say what?
The venting pipe from the fan over our stove had a too-wide opening on our roof. One morning, we heard a wild fluttering coming from the cabinet. I was CERTAIN it was a bird. Wendy brushed it off.
When we went to the cabinet, we looked in...and two eyes looked back.
We called the local police dept. and had their "animal services" officer come over. She did...nothing. Said i.e. "you're on your own."
We closed our daughter in the room, opened the deck door, opened the cabinet door and...it went nuts, flying around like crazy. Finally it left.
Several months later, the exact same thing happened. Again, we got it to leave...
But now, we have metal wiring above the pipe.
I have other bizarre bird stories, should you ever desire. :-)
Wonderful post! Your deftly woven story brought me through the drama as if I was watching it all unfold in front of me (although, having lived through my own bird dramas, I'm glad I wasn't there). My favorite parts were the kids poised to defend their Mom and I especially love that you included the moral of the story!
Wendy
Post a Comment