no Big Bird fer’sure
October 13th, 2003 byYou see ad’s on TV but never really expect it to happen in real life. And if it does, certainly not to you. Ofcourse not you.
I’m in my kitchen, sunny day and all. Empty house, mom and dad gone out. Windows plenty, streaming sunlight generous, God’s mercies afoot. The empty frozen cheese pizza box lies discarded on its front, the directions on the back. The jalepeno poppers and chicken nuggets on a baking sheet elsewhere.
*smack*
I’m not sure what just hit the wall the windows the rooftop but something most definitely hit the house with a hard smack. And was stopped, despite all its attempts to not be halted.
I look around, puzzled. There, outside the french window to the patio lies a small sparrow, lying on its head mostly, claws and wings in a crumple. Breathing hard, eyes steady.
This has never happened to me before. I have no idea what to do. I run a mental list of people I can call for advice and finally settle not on my department secretary or professors but on a SJ, daughter-in-law and professor in my university. Fortunately she answered. My other choice at this point was to call 911.
Just so that everybody knows now, when a bird hits your windows at such high speeds, it goes into shock and just lies there. The best thing to do is to make sure it’s in the shade and hopefully it will recover by itself. So far, little sparrow has managed to retreat its claws back to its body, so it hasn’t broken a neck or anything as such.
I’m going back to pizza, chicken nuggets, jalepeno poppers and a tiny bird that I’m going to be staring at for the rest of the afternoon.
Update:
+ The bird is now sitting on its feet masha-allah. So it seems to be ok. I’ve made several attempts to open channels of communication, even going as far as discussing weather but to no avail.
+ Bird gone. Alhamdulilah
October 13th, 2003 at 1:54 pm
poor little bird. Insha’Allah khayr.
I guess you handled it well after all, alhamdulillah. My first choice probably would have been 911.
October 13th, 2003 at 2:38 pm
Aww, it’s nice you tried to help the birdie. I did that once with a bird that broke it’s wing.
It died
I love jalapenos!
October 13th, 2003 at 2:42 pm
911 would have been utterly confused I think and demanded I call the fire department instead. They have that cats-in-trees program, so they may have a bird-hit-window program too.
Sorry to hear about your bird Jasmine.
I once won a fish and named it ‘Dumb Luck’.
It died the next day.
October 13th, 2003 at 4:11 pm
Erm
who the doodley doo is Jasmine?
Poow fishy ‘Dumb Luck’
Inna lillahe…….
I had a fish once, his name was Flossy Ketsapolis. He was diseased
It’s ok though, I am over the trauma now (lol) 
October 13th, 2003 at 4:24 pm
Oh god oh god oh god I’m dead.
I was thinking of Yasmine and then you, Jaded, and I just typed it out and it came out as Jasmine and now I’m dead because Yasmine. Will. Hurt. Me.
I think I finally understand what that little sparrow felt like when it hit the wall out of the blue.
October 13th, 2003 at 5:41 pm
Waleed, you sure as heck better be considering yourself oh so, so lucky that you live about 3,000 miles away from me.
And after giving me all that advice about left jabs and uppercuts too… So how does it feel to have it backfire, eh?
Tsk.
On the other hand, interestingly enough, this was the first real laugh I’ve had all day, and I definitely needed it. So you get a wary thanks for that, at least. As long as you don’t repeat it, I just might decide to let you live. Cool?
Okay, so back to the bird: Alhamdulillah. And what the heck were you two thinking when you named your pets?
October 13th, 2003 at 6:04 pm
JazakalaKhair Yasmine =)
I have no idea what Jaded was thinking. Me, I won that fish, fair and square, by pure dumb luck. Nothing else seemed appropriate.
Dumb luck it died the next day.
Ironically appropriate then.
October 13th, 2003 at 8:16 pm
pets have the absolute worse time at our place. it’s a terminal situation to say the least. i’ll be happy to go into it some other time but for now i just wanted to say thanks for helping with the comments section.
October 13th, 2003 at 11:15 pm
We stopped keeping our sliding glass door open here at the apartment because about once a week, I’d get scared to death by the thud of a bird kamakazee-ing into our window.
No bird deaths in a year!
October 14th, 2003 at 3:25 am
You shoulda tried the Vulcan mindmeld. It works every time. *nods wisely*
October 14th, 2003 at 6:01 am
I didn’t name Flossy, my sister did (older). Her reason behind it was that he had a nice big flossy like tail and Ketsapolis because it was the name of a guy she liked *rolls eyes* he did have a middle name too BUT I can’t remember it
Uh huh, she’s quite good with making names up. A tiger pencil case named Isaac Abraham (think he was Jewish), Skunkella the skunk puppet *ahem* it goes on and on.
How old am *I* again?!
October 14th, 2003 at 7:15 am
Anthony: Wait, if you keep your windows open, that means the birds just fly in right? Unless you have a around the house open window policy allowing them to just swoop in and out.
Owl: Right. Ofcourse. Mindmelds. So when they’re lying there in shock, you mindmeld and what? put a fear of flying in them??
Jaded: Umm…wow. That is most definitely interesting. So do tell. How old are you?
October 14th, 2003 at 8:57 am
Dude, you said you were trying to open the lines of communication. Vulcan mindmelds are good for communication. I was just trying to help.
October 14th, 2003 at 9:14 am
Lol @ interesting, hmmm :p
Hmph@ do tell :p “twenty something” with the intelligence level of a gnat.
(psssst 24 :s)
October 14th, 2003 at 10:40 am
Ohh…channels of communication. No, I think first I have to contatt the State Union for Fowl Conversation…
See Jaded, not so hard after all is it.
October 15th, 2003 at 12:26 am
I meant that we kept the blinds of the sliding glass door open, so the birds flew straight into the glass.
October 15th, 2003 at 3:47 pm
Make or purchase some sort of window sticker and put it on the outside. It is the reflection of the trees etc in the yard that trick the birds into thinking that there is nothing there, so…. put something there. It will confuse the birds and they will avoid your windows.