We Have a Long-time Vistor!!!!

With James being 9 1/2 years old, you've got to expect him to bring home "pets"! It's the rural life with a boy!! Over the years, we've had wild crawdads and snakes, and that's not to mention the FIVE fish tanks that we now house of "domesticated" tropical fish. And of course, first and foremost is our family member, Lacey.....or 2 1/2 year old golden retriever/border collie mix! Having grown up in a family that never had pets, this has been an adjustment for me!

I still give myself kudos for "putting up" with the snake phase as long as it lasted!! At one point we had 8 garder snakes, as the one we had found and brought home from a dry irrigation ditch ended up being pregnant and presented us with 7 babies!! It was a bit like living an "Indiana Jones" movie around here for awhile!!

And so we're now on to a new and different chapter! On Saturday evening, our next door neighbor, Su, called James over to her house. She had found a baby robin on her front walk and wanted to know if James wanted to bring it home and see if it would live. Well, needless to say, he jumped at the chance!! He jumped with both feet!!

James is now the proud father of a baby robin!! The first couple of days were touch and go, as we all learned and figured out how to take care of our new house guest! It was so little and helpless and a bit, intimidating at least for me!! James is fully responsible for the care of this little bird. It's a little bit older, moulting it's baby down with it's real feathers coming in. Thank goodness for the internet!! It's wonderful to be able to look things up, when you're completely lost!

We're now working on day five and the little fellow seems to be doing quite well! The second day we noticed that he (we're calling it "he", not really knowing it's gender!) had begun to hold his head tipped to the left. At first we thought he might have neurological problems, as it appeared that it couldn't hold it's head up. Then we realized that when it was hungry and feeding, it's neck seemed fine. That's when Dusty suggested that it possibly was blind in it's left eye. That's why he was holding his head that way, with the right eye pointing upward (the eye that does work). And so we're going with this premise, for now anyway. The last few days, he seems to be holding his neck straighter, so we'll see. We've named him "Patch" in honor of being one-eyed.

Introducing "Patch Chirp Ryan"!!

Patch is so homely, he's cute!!

Here's Patch's Dad! We keep laughing, that this reminds us of the kid's book, "Are You My Mother?" Patch certainly thinks that James is his mother/father now!!!!

It seems like Patch is always eating.....from sunrise to sundown! (Thankfully, he sleeps all night!) James now has a list of food that he rotates through when feeding Patch.....mealworms, night crawlers, softened dog food, strawberries and grapes. Patch is like a normal baby.....eats, sleeps and poops, just like he should!!

We keep reminding James that there's a chance Patch won't make it. He understands and is taking his "job" very seriously. So far, so good! With his disability, we doubt that we'll ever be able to set him free. He probably won't ever be able to fly well or take care of himself. Once it looks like Patch will be with us, I'll have to look into getting a permit for keeping a wild bird! In the meantime, our house is full of the chirping of a baby bird and our hearts are warmed by a new "pet"!!