Friday Surprise Visitor

The weekend excitement has already begun... as I write this I am waiting for the wildlife rehabilitation guy to come and get a ruffled grouse from my shed.

Jose was working on his Toyota project and he came into the house about an hour ago, excitedly telling me in Spanish that he had something for me to see. I threw on my shoes and peeked inside the shed and heard what I thought was chirping.

Sure enough, this brownish-reddish bird about the size of a hen had waddled into my shed and was now pooping all over the place. I'd never seen anything like it, but a quick internet search showed me images of a grouse-and since they are native to Maine, I figured that is what I had staring back at me.

Jose explained that the bird just happened to waddle right past him and into the shed like nothing bothered him. Considering I have four cats (one only goes outdoors) and the neighborhood is full of cats, mean kids and pit bulls I knew this bird wasn't going to go far if we let him loose again. I firmly told my hubby that we would not EAT this bird, and not to even THINK about making a nice meal out of it. (I think if hubby would have been in Guatemala that poor bird would have found his way into a pot of stew quicker than it took me to shut the shed door.)

I then decided I was going to call a local wildlife rehabilitation center, and lucky for me the guy answered. He is currently finishing up his chores and then coming to get this little grouse before someone decides to hurt him. A few weeks ago, there was a very drugged up man (now called Bird Man by the neighborhood residents) who apparently decided he was going to eat a live pigeon in front of everyone. And he began doing so...much to the disgust and horror of everyone watching. The police were called and they began following him, but couldn't arrest him they said unless the bird DIED. Hello, he was EATING the bird alive in front of them and they wouldn't arrest his ass---something is definitely messed up there. So considering Bird Man still lives in the neighborhood, it is a Friday night and only the Good Lord knows what Bird Man has been doing all day (crack, pot, meth, pills, alcohol, it could be any of a combination of all!) I am bound and determined to save our little friend from Bird Man.

Update: It is now almost 8:30 pm and the man from the Wildlife Care Center showed up and went into my shed and got the grouse... jokingly he said to hubby that it would make a fine lunch. I thought hubby was going to kill me...lol. I guess he figured I would be giving HIS lunch away but then the man explained that he'd check it out and then bring it to the woods someplace to release it if all is well. The wildlife center is out in the woods, so he will probably release it out that way. My daughter is not very happy, she figured she'd be getting a photo opp with the bird when all was said and done, but the bird ended up in the guy's arms not moving at all so he didn't need to go into a cage. I did manage to snap a quick pick though, before he was placed in the pet carrier in the back of their truck... so here is a pic of my Friday night guest visitor. Have a great weekend everyone!