meisa's menagerie
previously i mentioned the family at 2219 as consisting of me and my roommate andrea. but the family is much much bigger than that. now granted, we never asked for and don't appreciate any of our other family members, but they live with us, so they are family.
let us look back about 2 1/2 years... (insert wavy dream sequence)
a small pile of twigs appeared on our back porch in the corner. we thought nothing of it and meant to kick it away until we walked up the stairs a few days later and saw a pigeon (also known as a spawn of satan) with a few eggs layed on the pile of twigs. for weeks we ducked the spawn of satan's attempt to poke out our eyes until the babies were raised and looked as though they were about ready to leave the nest. except low and behold, the spawn of satan decided to be efficient and lay more eggs for her babies to keep warm for her. at that point, we'd had enough pigeon shit and near death experiences from bird attacks that we faced the problem head on. andrea grabbed the broom and waved it around while screaming to ward off the mother, and i put plastic bags on my feet and stomped towards the baby pigeons (the noise of the bags scared them to move), i grabbed the eggs and took them to the dumpster. maybe cruel, but we just couldn't handle it anymore.
overlapping this experience was the appearance of the dive-bombing swallows that also took up residence on our porch. needless to say, we tried to take the front stairs whenever possible.
unfortunately, there is much more to the story. read on.
summer came and went and the birds went south or did whatever then do in the winter, and the mice came in.
it started with the brita filter needing changed. i went to our kitchen closet where we keep things we don't use very often, and had a mouse nearly crawl over my hand. a few hours later we had the guts to open the cabinet, only to find mouse crap everywhere, my bag of persian rice eaten through, and napkins ripped to shreds. the traps were layed the maintenance men had come and put poison around the house. and 14, count 'em, 14 mice later we thought we were in the clear.
so there i was sitting in my living room, enjoying a mouse free household when i see one creep out from behind the ficus tree. it just kind of hung out there sitting, even when i got up close. and then it spasmed. and then it spasmed again. for 4 hours. i didn't want to watch, but at the same time, i couldn't let it out of my sight for fear it would die and rot somewhere in my living room. so finally it was time to go to bed and i just couldn't handle it anymore. i swept it up and took it outside.
since then we've had mice on and off and the swallows come back every summer and it hasn't been too too bad, until last nite.
my mother called to let me know that a baby bird had fallen out of the swallow's nest on the back porch. despite the 15 foot fall, he was still breathing. we left him there for a few hours, but in the evening just felt too sorry for him in the cold so we brought him in. he wouldn't open his beak, but we tried to feed him a cracker paste we had made up. the morning found him still alive, so andrea and i deposited him back into the nest. about 15 minutes later the mom pushed him out again. and once again, he survived the fall. not knowing what to do, i called different vet/wildlife facilities. after talking to the people there, i found out that the mom had probably pushed him out to begin with probably because there was something already wrong with him. the man suggested i place the birdie in a wooded area where he could stay part of nature and just become part of the food chain. so we said goodbye to the baby bird out near the baha'i house of worship. very sad.
i hope that this is the end of my menagerie, but i have a sneaking suspicion this story will get even longer. stay tuned.