The Bird Peeps at Midnight

My nephew spent the weekend at my house, so needless to say, once I cleaned up the disaster that was left behind, I was beat. As in, let nothing get between me and my bed kind of beat. Jake and Sam made themselves scarce, so Izzy took the brunt of the visit and crashed for a good solid three hours as soon as the door closed behind the kid. Which is why he had energy for what came later.

So there I was, snuggled in and starting to doze when I heard the first "peep peep!" At first I thought it was the TV (had it on sleep timer) and ignored it. Then there it was again. Kind of faint, but insistent. I opened my eyes to look at the TV to see if somehow, someway, there might be a little bird involved in what was happening on "Futurama" and I might be able to just go to sleep. Nope. *sigh*

When I heard it again, I knew for sure--the hunter had struck again.

I got quietly out of bed, listening for more peeps so I could pin down its location. I stepped out into the hallway and flicked on the light. As I made my way down the hall, Izzy pranced out of the craft room, his attitude all innocent. If he could speak he would have been saying "uh, hey mom, what's up?" in that fake casual way guilty kids have.

Not being dumb enough to fall for a cat's innocent act, I knew the poor bird was somewhere in there. As I started for the door, Izzy switched to the cute act to stop me from going in there and hurled himself against my legs for a rub. Sorry kid, I know your ill-gotten gains are in there somewhere.

Sure enough, there was a baby mockingbird on its last breath lying beneath the table. You poor, dumb thing. Why did you come into my yard when there's a known killer on the loose?

I scooped it up with a sheet of paper and carried it outside where I laid it on the grass. This one there really was no hope for, and all I could really ask was that it didn't meet its demise on my carpet.

I just hope Izzy keeps an eye out for mama mockingbird. Those things are vicious and known to pin a cat beneath a car for hours. Just ask Sam. I've had to rescue him several times from a dive-bombing mockingbird. He still hasn't told me what he did to piss her off.