la_belle_laide (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
la_belle_laide) wrote2005-07-29 10:01 pm
la_belle_laide) wrote2005-07-29 10:01 pm
Entry tags:
It's a circle of life kinda thing.
A superweird thing happened today at work. A few days ago we had this baby crow come in all sick. Yesterday he looked okay, but this morning I went to check on him and he looked terrible and had lost all this weight, so I brought him up to ask Rob what to do. He told me to give him some dextrose and lactated ringers because maybe it was just dehydration and hypoglycemia. So I did all that. Then I had to finish feeding the dogs and cats, and afterwards I went back to get the crow. By this time, he was clearly dying.
Like most crows I've seen, he didn't seem to want to die alone. Whenever I'd try to put him down, he'd make this really sad crying noise and flap around. I'd just have to pick him up again, and he'd settle down. Then I thought, who wants to die in a cage in the cellar? (When I was telling this to my friends at work, at this point in the story, Tricia tentatively raised her hand. O_o ) So I took the crow outside.
So I sat there with him on the steps for a good fifteen minutes and he just stared at the sky while he was dying. Then, I kid you not, this big breeze came out of the west. The crow stood up in my lap, made three crow calls, and fell back down. Then he took a few more breaths and died.
Well, I always want to make sure something's dead before I put it in the freezer, so I took it back inside and had Rob listen to it with the stethescope. After making 100% sure like always, I bagged him and took him to the freezer.
Just a second before I threw the freezer door open, I saw something moving on top of it. Something white and little, looked kind of like a small white slug or a larvae or something creepy like that. A closer look, and I saw that it was actually a tiny baby bird trying to get out of an egg. Tiny baby bird, smaller than I've ever seen. I scooped it up, put the crow in the freezer, and took the baby inside. The eggshell was still all stuck to him, just like in the cartoons. He was really cold and couldn't move around enough to get it off him.
Cristina, another girl who works there, said that she'd seen some barn swallows flying around like crazy earlier, and we both agreed it had to be a barnie--how else would it get into the barn, of all places? ALthough, the next really sounded empty. But we took a ladder and I climbed up to have a peek. Couldn't actually see into the nest, but I put my hand in there and felt a whole bunch of babies squiggling around, some just hatched, some still in eggs!
So I just put our baby barnie back into his nest.
It was just weird, is all. Crow dies, a minute later another egg hatches right on top of the dead animal freezer. Talk about your circles, jeez. It was sad, because I do love crows and seeing him go like that was heartbreaking, but it was kind of inspiring, too.
Like most crows I've seen, he didn't seem to want to die alone. Whenever I'd try to put him down, he'd make this really sad crying noise and flap around. I'd just have to pick him up again, and he'd settle down. Then I thought, who wants to die in a cage in the cellar? (When I was telling this to my friends at work, at this point in the story, Tricia tentatively raised her hand. O_o ) So I took the crow outside.
So I sat there with him on the steps for a good fifteen minutes and he just stared at the sky while he was dying. Then, I kid you not, this big breeze came out of the west. The crow stood up in my lap, made three crow calls, and fell back down. Then he took a few more breaths and died.
Well, I always want to make sure something's dead before I put it in the freezer, so I took it back inside and had Rob listen to it with the stethescope. After making 100% sure like always, I bagged him and took him to the freezer.
Just a second before I threw the freezer door open, I saw something moving on top of it. Something white and little, looked kind of like a small white slug or a larvae or something creepy like that. A closer look, and I saw that it was actually a tiny baby bird trying to get out of an egg. Tiny baby bird, smaller than I've ever seen. I scooped it up, put the crow in the freezer, and took the baby inside. The eggshell was still all stuck to him, just like in the cartoons. He was really cold and couldn't move around enough to get it off him.
Cristina, another girl who works there, said that she'd seen some barn swallows flying around like crazy earlier, and we both agreed it had to be a barnie--how else would it get into the barn, of all places? ALthough, the next really sounded empty. But we took a ladder and I climbed up to have a peek. Couldn't actually see into the nest, but I put my hand in there and felt a whole bunch of babies squiggling around, some just hatched, some still in eggs!
So I just put our baby barnie back into his nest.
It was just weird, is all. Crow dies, a minute later another egg hatches right on top of the dead animal freezer. Talk about your circles, jeez. It was sad, because I do love crows and seeing him go like that was heartbreaking, but it was kind of inspiring, too.
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I don't know if I could bear to have a job where I'd have to watch living things die so often. A friend of mine loves pet rats, and I just don't get it, because they only live three years or less and then she has to go through the pain of saying good bye all over again. Two of her rats died this month and she was really down. I know she loves them and they're sorta sweet and all. I just know I couldn't handle it. It was hard enough for me when my dog died after ten years...
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Ooh, Irish Wolfhounds! I love humongous dogs. I don't know why. My own dogs are terriers, and I love that size...but I like greeting other people's huge dogs. They're quite often really sweet. I met a St. Bernard that just flopped over like a puppy and lolled his tongue out of his mouth while you rubbed his belly.
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I can understand your friend with the rats--I have rats as pets as well. It does suck that they only live a short amount of time, but they're such loving, wonderful little animals with great personalities. ^_^
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I'm not sure about the short lifespan of dogs either, but it seems that the larger breeds tend to live a shorter time. Anyone else know more about this? (My own dogs are West Highland White Terriers, and they have an average lifespan of 14 years.)