The Neighborhood Celebrity
Abbie Creed
Revision
©
Copyright 2024 by Abbie Creed
|
Photo
by Jacques Le Henaff on Unsplash. |
“The
Neighborhood Celebrity” is a heart-warming story with a happy
ending, and is quite suitable for children of any age. It depicts how
a child, a teenager and an adult showing empathy, Compassion,
patience and caring, met under extraordinary circumstances, and
worked together to save a life. I wrote this story for all the
children in my life.
It
was the last day
of school when my son, Kelly, was ready to graduate from the 8th
grade and I was a bit delayed getting home from my school teaching
job, that I was met with a bit of excitement. I walked into my
bedroom to find a glob of something right in the center of my bed.
There was no way to tell what it was, but it was breathing, and
neighbor children were watching its every breath.
One
of the children
found this baby sparrow that had fallen out of the nest and was in
danger of being devoured by a family dog. My son Kelly was known to
all the children as the big kid who took care of animals. But this
one looked as if it was beyond Kelly’s fixing. It appeared to
have tissue, skin, but no feathers. Looking at the poor thing was
sad; you could see its insides through its thin skin.
Kelly
called the
Audubon Society to get information about birds. A kind gentleman
there tried to be positive about the poor little bird but felt it had
little to no chance of survival. However, he gave Kelly a list of
things to do such as making food using oatmeal, cottage cheese and
Karo syrup. Kelly made a paste in a small bowl and cut up one of his
artist brushes, leaving just four small bristles as a means of
feeding the bird. Using his ability to communicate with this little
critter by making a clicking noise with his tongue and teeth, the
baby bird opened its beak as Kelly gently picked up some of the
mixture on the bristles of the brush and poked it down the bird’s
throat. These were directions given to him by the kind man on the
other end of the phone. He said, “ Mama birds push the food
through the beaks of their babies and into their gullet.” This
same routine was repeated many times a day for several weeks.
To
everyone’s amazement, Chip, Kelly’s name for the bird,
was thriving. However, being a bird’s mama was extremely time
consuming. For a thirteen-year-old. The foot of Kelly’s bed
became the bird’s nest. Every morning at sun-up, that baby bird
started pulling Kelly’s neck hairs to wake him and remind him
that it was time for breakfast. After a week or so, Chip began to
have a few feathers and was gaining weight.
We
had a cat in our family at that time and it was quite a feat to keep
the cat out of Kelly’s room. As the bird began to flit around,
the cat became more curious about the noise behind the closed door.
During the day, Kelly took the bird to the basement where it had more
room, so the shift began, to keep the basement door closed so the cat
could not go downstairs.
During
these
critical days, Kelly was in constant touch with the gentleman at the
Audubon Society. When the gentleman felt it was time to change the
bird’s formula to something a bit more substantial, Kelly
switched to wild bird seed, but it had to be crushed up. Kelly did
this by putting it on the driveway and crushing it with a hammer.
With this new change, Chip learned to feed himself. Kelly took him
outside several times a day for that purpose. He also kept a little
food in the basement.
Chip
became the
pride of the neighborhood children. They often came to visit him in
the basement. Kelly had taught the children to hold their pointer
finger out, click their teeth and watch as Chip jumped up and sit on
their fingers. Chip also liked to give kisses on the cheeks and loved
rocking on the rung of the wooden rocking chair in the basement. It
was so fascinating to watch the children as they very carefully
followed Kelly’s instructions.
The
whole family was
getting overly attached to that little bird. But as directed by the
gentleman from Audubon, it was time to teach the bird to fly. The
routine was for Kelly’s brother to stand in the open window of
his second-floor bedroom while Kelly went down to the back yard and
with his clicking sound, call Chip to fly down. After several tries
that little bird accomplished its first lesson. When it was time to
reverse the procedure Kelly stood in his bedroom window, while his
brother took the bird to the backyard. It took a few more tries to
accomplish flying up. But once that was accomplished Chip flew all
over the yard, but at night he wanted inside Kelly’s bedroom.
The
next lesson for
Chip was exceedingly difficult for Kelly. He was advised not to let
Chip in at night. He and the bird had slept together most of the
early days of summer and now he would have to be the one to stop it.
That little bird slept on Kelly’s windowsill with the screen in
the window separating them for the rest of the summer. After Chip had
learned to crack the bird seed himself, he did not have to wake Kelly
to have breakfast.
Chip
had a broken
front claw that was quite noticeable, so it was not difficult for
Kelly, using his binoculars, to keep an eye on Chip when he was
outside. He did not go far from home even though he had learned to
fly with ease. One day when Kelly went to the swimming pool, he asked
me to let Chip stay in the basement. He was afraid that if chip
followed him, he might not know how to get home. There I was
babysitting a baby bird on a hot summer afternoon. But somehow, one
of Kelly’s brothers had left the basement door open and Chip
got out. However, I did not know it. I think he exited the basement
without making sure the door closed tightly.
As
Kelly was
returning home from the pool, riding his bike down Winston Avenue, a
bird took a flying dive at him and landed on his shoulder to finish
the ride home. Kelly knew it had to be Chip. The bird had picked
Kelly out of all the boys riding along with him. I think Kelly was a
little too excited that Chip had landed on his shoulder for the ride
home, to be upset that someone had let him out of the basement.
All
summer Chip was
spotted in the backyard. The gentleman from the Audubon Society was
beyond excited that this little sparrow had survived and had become
such a special neighborhood celebrity. Kelly, living up to his
reputation, told the children that they had saved the bird’s
life, and that they were welcome to come to our yard to watch for him
any time they wanted.
Kelly watched for
Chip all winter long and on occasion spotted him in the trees nearby.
The next summer as well, Chip could be seen in the neighborhood.
After all, Winston Avenue was his home, and Kelly’s siblings
and the neighbor children were his family. What a fun filled and
memorable Summer that was!
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