I’m going back to resolve the story of the animal from the previous post (Karen and the Animal). It was making noise again last night which means it was neither kaput nor safely out. At this point I figure it’s neither a rat nor a squirrel because rodents would have at least gotten through the chimney cardboard and be scratching on the board we put at the front of the fireplace. We finished our dinner and got up our courage to go in.

We moved stuff into the bedroom and closed all the doors and opened the window. Grabbed some towels (for protection) and took off the board. We then slowly and carefully removed the cardboard at the top of the fireplace. Tiffany grabbed the torch (flashlight) and we discovered another taped up piece of cardboard! The second piece of cardboard came down with a load of soot. I peek up into the chimney and standing on a ledge I saw a bird! It was facing the corner, Blair Witch style, and was completely motionless. I covered my hand with a tea towel (again, for protection) and carefully reached in to grab the bird. In one swift (okay probably not swift) motion I pulled the bird out of the chimney and dropped it out the window.

It sat in the grass out side our window and suddenly, like a glorious angel, it spread its wings and took flight… right into the side of our house. The bird decided to hang out behind the recycle bins, where it pooped twice. Tiffany called the royal society for protection of birds. They told us to keep it in a dark warm place for a day. We decided that we didn’t want to bring it back into our house, and besides it’s been in a dark warm place since Sunday. Figuring it would be hungry, I brought it some bread. For some reason throwing soggy pieces of bread in its general direction made it want to leave, so it flew off again, right into the house three doors down. I think it probably spent some time in the bush in front of that house. I figure it just needed to calm down and get reoriented. It looked perfectly healthy and should be okay.

It was a nice looking bird, black and white with a bluish-purplish tail. I think it may have been a magpie. It wasn’t a bearded tit and definitely was not an old coot.

So last week we talked about bugs in the carpet, this week the bird in the chimney, perhaps next week it’ll be a hippopotamus in the garden! Look forward to it.