Sparrow - A Cat’s Perception of Saving a Baby Bird
Wednesday Morning - 6:30am
“Let me in! Let me in! Let me in!” Oreo pawed at the glass windowpane of the backdoor that lead into the kitchen. “You kept me out all night and I’m starving!”
Oreo stood on his hind legs as his dirty paw pads made a mess of the glass. The moisture from the evening dew had made the base of his paws incredibly wet; the white socks he wore were also sodden. Oreo’s slick coat was mainly black. He had thick, well-kept fur and was incredibly fluffy and soft. He had a white chest and a white belly, where a strip stretched to his chin, tapping his nose. He was a young tom, only three in human years, and behaved quite differently to most cats. The humans actually thought he was more like a dog.
“I can see you! I can see you!” Oreo meowed. “Let me in!”
The Human Mother had already entered the kitchen to make breakfast; she spotted Oreo up against the doors and let him in.
“Morning,” said the Human Mother.
“Good morning,” Oreo responded. A limp hand came down to him, and he made a little jump to greet her, knocking her fingers with his nose and running them along his head.
“Hungry?” the Human Mother asked.
“I’m fucking starving.” Oreo replied. “Ten minutes I was waiting by that door this morning. Oversleep did we? Lazy cow.”
“There you go,” the Human Mother emptied a sachet of food into Oreo’s food bowl and gave him a long stroke from his head to his tail. Oreo enjoyed that very much, riding her palm with his back.
After complaining so much about his hunger, Oreo only finished half of his dish before skulking back into the garden.
‘Lovely,’ he thought. ‘What a beautiful day.’
As he took in a deep breath he heard the back doors open into his neighbour’s yard. Luca’s a lucky cat; his family brings him in at night and he would’ve had his breakfast a lot earlier. Like an elegant gazelle Luca leapt up onto the top of the fence, balancing on the narrow frame with impressive precision. An agile cat was Luca, unlike Oreo, who is as clumsy as can be. Luca was a shorthaired black cat, slim and sure-footed. He and Oreo had been friends since they were kittens, matured as neighbours, building their territory together. They have full reign of their two gardens and Clause, a much larger and older tom a few doors down, had his own patch. They respected Clause, and kept out of his way.
“Got any food for me?” Luca said before leaping down onto the garden furniture.
“Yeah,” said Oreo as he jumped onto a garden chair and settled down for a snooze. “I left you some inside.”
“Nice one,” Luca carefully gazed into Oreo’s kitchen, the Human Mother was still there, he will wait until she had gone. “Come on, wench.”
Oreo gave Luca a little bat on the head.
“Piss off,” snapped Luca.
“Someone still hungry?” Oreo raised his paw ready to bat again.
“Honestly, I’m not in the mood,” Luca raised his paw, with claws protruding.
“Boring,” Oreo licked the fur on his thigh.
Their relaxed morning was suddenly disturbed by a light crashing through branches and leaves. A thud sounded from the prickly ground of the alleyway behind the fence.
“What was that?” Oreo’s ears pricked and his head shot upright. Luca paid no attention and made himself comfortable on the cushion.
Luca resting on the garden furniture.
With a light bounce in his step Oreo skipped to the back fence, readied himself then leapt up the wooden panels causing quite the noise with his heavy-footed agility. Scrambling up the fence, splintering the wood as he went, he found his way to the ledge. Taking care of this footing, Oreo walked along until he was under the large conifer tree that grew at the back of Clause’s garden. Oreo’s eyes scanned its base, his large green eyes searching for any movement. He caught the scent of life, followed his nose and saw a baby sparrow rustling around amongst the fallen twigs and brambles.
The sparrow had its feathers but also had fur on it’s head, proving it was still very young.
Oreo scrambled down the fence to take a closer look. The baby sparrow was quite dazed and struggling to get to its feet. Oreo circled the bird, being ten times its size he terrifying the poor thing, who fell from side to side trying to gain balance.
“You ok? Are you hurt?” Oreo asked, yet the bird stayed quiet, she flapped her wings but was not strong enough to get herself off the ground. “You’re too young to fly, where’s your mother?”
The bird continued to waddle and fall, flap and jump, with no luck of getting any further from Oreo who tread carefully behind her.
“You’re not safe out here, there’s cats everywhere. Luca would have you in a second, he’s getting a bit tired of Whiskers.”
The baby bird stopped flapping and took a breath. Oreo felt sorry for the poor thing, he knew what it was like to fail at something that your species expects of you. Oreo wasn’t the most graceful of cats and wasn’t the quickest when pouncing on prey – not that he wanted to catch anything.
Perhaps this was his chance to win the birds over, show that he wanted to be their friends and play, not hunt and kill them.
“I’ll take you home and my Human’s can get you back to health. They’ll know what to do,” Oreo opened his mouth and went for the chick, to carry her home by the scruff of the neck just like his mother did when he was babe. The bird panicked and sprung, darting this way and that, falling over in the process. “I’m trying to help you little bird, I need to carry you indoors.”
The bird did not listen, she flapped and she fell, still not getting far from Oreo at all.
‘The sprite in this little thing,’ Oreo thought.
“Don’t waste your energy,” Oreo advised. Then with a quick spring in his step, like predator pouncing on prey, Oreo was on top of the bird and clutched it within his jaws.
Oreo took a few steps forward, turned and jumped up onto the fence, splintering the wood as he went. He fell over the top and landed in his own garden still gripping the baby bird gently between his teeth.
The tree the baby bird fell from.
“What’s that?” Asked Luca, perking up.
“Nothing,” Oreo replied with a muffled voice.
“You didn’t catch that!”
Luckily the back door was left open and Oreo darted into the kitchen. The Human Tom, the Mother’s son, was making himself breakfast.
Oreo trotted under the kitchen table and dropped the bird from his jaws. The chick landed on her front and couldn’t get her balance, in shock from the whole ordeal.
“You ok?” Oreo asked the bird, but the bird did not respond. She only scrambled to her feet, dazed and confused, so Oreo called to the Human Tom. “Human! Human! We have a casualty!”
The baby tried to scamper away. “No, come back,” Oreo pawed at the chick to keep her close. “Calm down.” Oreo tapped the chick again to give it comfort and to stop the flapping, yet the chick would not calm down.
“Oh shit!” The Human Tom had turned to see the commotion he could hear behind him. He started and bent down to check on the chick.
“She’s alright,” said Oreo. “Just needs to be looked after for a bit.” At that Oreo reached out a paw to tap the bird on the back, the Human Tom was quick and snappy, batting Oreo’s paw away.
“Oreo, get out!” The Human ushered Oreo in an aggressive manner out into the garden.
“Jesus!” Oreo turned to watch the back doors slam on him. “Some appreciation. Prick.”
Luca sat back and watched Oreo stare at the door. “What an interesting state of affairs.”
“He better look after that poor..”
“Chick. You brought back a live chick,” Luca spoke through rolling eyes.
“She was wounded,” Oreo exclaimed. “I’m not going to eat her.”
“Who said anything about eating it? Capturing a bird is merely a tool, to show the Humans that we still have the ability to hunt. As much as they want us to lose our predatorial skills to their processed sachets of shit.”
“Well, I don’t think it was fair game seeing as she was wounded.”
“You’re no carnivore, you’re a dog. Here to play and lap up attention.”
At that the door swung open and the Mother Human shooed the cats away, both darted over into Luca’s garden. Luca glided through the air like a gazelle – Oreo more like a baby giraffe.
Oreo crawled his way up onto Luca’s garage and watched the Humans tend to the baby bird. The Humans were giving the bird a chance to take to the skies.
“The bird won’t fly,” Oreo noted.
“It’s weak. It’s big enough to fly; it’s old enough to fly. It’s survival of the fittest in this world.” Luca snorted.
The Human’s placed the bird in Oreo’s carry case with some grass and a crushed worm they had found. Oreo believed then that the Human’s cared and wanted to look after it, and using his carry case was a great idea although he worried the bars would be too wide. When animals are imprisoned they will go to great lengths to escape and will go through extraordinary pain to be free again. It was also great to see the carry case being used to do good for once. Every time he was forced in there they went to a place where the man handled him heavily and poked him with sharp objects. If the bird was in there, he wouldn’t be going to that wretched place so she could honestly stay in there forever. The Humans placed the box into the shed and locked the door, at least there she was safe from Luca and Clause.
Luca had curled up into on the concrete floor outside the backdoors to his house. Oreo thought quickly.
“It’s flown,” Oreo lied.
“That’s a shame,” Luca grumbled. “Although, the chase is far more satisfying.”
Oreo relaxed knowing the bird was safe for a while longer, but once set free, she will be far from danger.
The shed where the baby bird was kept safe.
Wednesday Afternoon – 13:00pm
Hours passed and Oreo heard the mother of the chick chirping for its young. He tried to tell her what had happened but she kept on flying away, so Oreo walked up to the shed door to check on the baby himself.
“Little bird, are you ok?” Oreo received no response. He tried again. “Little bird? Are you in there?”
All of a sudden he heard a rustle and a crash. The sparrow had escaped the carry box; he knew the bars were too wide! ‘Stupid Humans!’ That also meant the box was vacant again for scary vet trips. Fuck sake.
The bird crashed around again and tweeted! It called for its mother knowing she was on the search.
‘What do I do? What do I do?’ Oreo panicked and pranced, practically chasing his own tail. ‘I better tell the humans’ Oreo thought and dashed to the door. He leapt up again at the window like he did that morning calling for his breakfast. This time the Human Tom answered.
“The chick! It’s out the box! It’s..” Oreo yelped.
The Human brushed past him, turned and nudged Oreo inside and shut the door.
“What the?” Oreo flabbergasted. The Human started to the shed.
“Let me come!” Oreo screamed. “She’ll slip through your fingers, I can stop her!”
The Human didn’t listen and opened the shed door.
“Be careful you fucking idiot! She’ll dart out!” Oreo banged his paws against the window. “Luca’s still out there!”
The human closed the shed door and came back to the house.
“What is it? See a scary spider in there? You fucking twat.” Oreo scowled as the Human passed him, still not allowing Oreo out into the garden.
The Human came back with his mum and took her to the shed.
“Need mummy to hold your hand? You pathetic creting.” Oreo was not happy with the Human boy. “Probably best you’ve got someone with a bit of sense with you, thank you Mother Human I was trying to tell him...” Oreo went to follow the pair before the Mother Human shut the door on him. “Fucking bitch.”
He stood at the back door and watch the events unfold. The Humans went to check on the bird and, yes - she had escaped and was falling about the shed. The Humans had to take out all its contents to find her and to Oreo’s amazement the Human Tom was able to catch her.
“Well I never,” said Oreo amazed. ‘The boys not a complete twit.”
The Human Tom then opened his hands to allow the bird to fly, where she just fell to the floor and scurried off behind a large box in the garden, out of reach of the Humans. “Oh my god, that absolute helm.”
The Humans shrugged their shoulders and assumed that was all they could do, they went inside and forgot about the chick. That’s something Oreo could not do. He didn’t want to startle the bird so he left her to her own devices. Occasionally, a Human would come out and peer down the sides of the box, but the chick was not there. Oreo knew she had scampered behind the box, out of sight to the Humans as it was tight up against the fence…also very safe from Luca as it was too narrow for even a cat to reach through.
With that piece of mind Oreo went inside to grab a bite to eat and have a little nap.
Oreo from inside the house, once the bird was behind the box.
Wednesday Evening – 22:30pm
Oreo was awoken by the Human Tom carrying him to the back door. Oreo’s eyes blinkered as he tried to gain focus. Suddenly he was out on the decking and the door locked behind him. Arching his back, claws protruding and gripping the wooden panels of the deck, Oreo stretched until his bones fell back into position. Once stretched, he shook his head for some unknown reason, before giving the bottom of his back a quick clean.
The night was quiet and warm. Dark had fallen and the Humans slept. Even the birds had stopped tweeting. Oreo trotted over to the box and took a glance behind it – the chick was gone.
“Oh where have you gone now?” Oreo sighed with a slight worry in his voice. Then to his surprise, the chick jumped out from behind a plant pot further down the garden and made a poor effort for a gap in the back fence. ‘Was this her great escape?’ Oreo thought.
“Look, the human’s are only trying to help you. I’m only trying to help you. If you just...” as Oreo made his plea, the back fence rattled and down flew Luca, blocking the chick’s route.
“Stay for dinner,” Luca made his un-witty quip and slammed his paw firmly on top the chick, flattening it to the ground.
“Luca? What the…” Oreo jumped in shock, his back arched and his hair rose - each strand a shard in the air.
“The Humans called me in, but I fancied a night out tonight. Such a lovely evening.”
‘Get your paws off her!” Oreo snapped.
“Oh aren't we both full of the cliché movie lines tonight?” Luca said smarmily.
The chick began chirping, wriggling under Luca’s paws terrified for her life.
“Luca get off her!” Oreo batted Luca’s head, sending him reeling back. The chick was free and stumbled across the grass back behind the flowerpot - thus behind Oreo.
Luca shook his head, and then took a threatening stance towards Oreo. “Quite a stroke you’ve got there, you’ve never played this rough before.”
“We’ve never played long enough to get rough you boring bastard.” Oreo mirrored the challenging stance that Luca had adopted, waiting for Luca to pounce.
“Oh but it is boring Oreo: the play fighting and the teasing. Why not the real thing?” Luca tread carefully to his side, waiting for the right moment for his attack. Again Oreo followed his lead, which in turn had the two cats circling each other. The chick remained hidden behind the pot.
“It doesn’t have to be, this is all over a chick!” Oreo didn’t want to fight, but will to protect the chick; he just had to wait for Luca to make the move.
“If you want to go back to play fighting we can, just let me have the chick. The Humans are desperate for me to bring something in.” Luca spoke with pride and arrogance.
“The Human’s don’t want dead birds!” Oreo exclaimed.
“Let’s see if they’ll want dead YOU!” Luca launched himself at Oreo, putting the bird’s defender on his back. Claws dived into Oreo’s skin and he let out a yelp before kicking Luca off onto the lawn. The two leapt up at each other aggressively, both on their hind legs batting paw to head and teeth to flesh. Clumps of fur flew into the air and their bodies twisted underneath each other as they battled. Breaking and charging, the two Toms flung their claws at each other and wailed as they struck.
The brawling was brought to a close when their neighbour Clause, landed between them.
The two separated, they crouched low on the ground with hair raised and eyes wide. Clause stood between them – tall, strong and a tabby.
“Enough!” Clause demanded.
“You little prick, you caught my ear!” Luca cursed, breathing heavily.
Oreo stared back solidly, feeling a twinge in his tail. “Pussy.”
Luca looked up at Clause and pitched his argument.
“We’re cats. That’s a bird. We catch birds and sometimes we eat them,” Luca explained confidently. Then rethought his principle. “If we don’t want to eat them then we use them to get more food from the Humans.”
“The bird’s a baby, it’s hurt and defenseless. It doesn’t have to be killed!” Oreo made his case and then Clause snapped again.
“Silence!” He said. “This noise will wake the Humans and we will never be fed!”
“We won’t need to if that pussy would just let us eat the bird.” Luca mumbled.
“You pussy!” Oreo yelled. “You wouldn’t eat a live bird if you were starved!”
“I do not want to get Chloe out here!” Clause was not taking any prisoners. The two fighting cats settled, not wanting Clause to bring out his roommate - a dog. Oreo and Luca fell silent and Clause took a breath.
“Luca, back to your garden,” Clause ordered. “I don’t want to hear from you until the morning.”
“It’s probably died of shock by now anyway, knowing birds.” Luca made his comment then proudly leapt over the fence.
Clause turned to Oreo. “I’d keep an eye on him if I was you, and keep the other one on that bird.”
Oreo nodded in agreement and Clause took his leave. Oreo took a peep behind the plant pot to ensure the bird actually hadn’t died of fright. Luckily she hadn’t but she wasn’t far off – trembling and cowering.
Oreo knew he wasn’t making it any easier for her, so decided to keep his distance. He clambered up the wall of the house and settled on a low roof, keeping a watchful eye on Luca - who sat by his back door wishing he never stayed out. And kept an eye on the petrified bird, shivering in the grass.
All night Oreo sat on top of that roof, forcing himself to stay awake. Luca hardly moved, he mostly slept the night away. The bird, on the other hand, stumbled around the garden looking for means of escape, still threatened by Oreo watching her. It was a long night for the both of them and when morning came and the families of birds began singing they were both near to exhaustion. The baby bird settled at the base of the shed, fatigued and drowsy.
Oreo on the roof.
Thursday Morning - 6:30am
Luca’s Human was the first to wake up, opening the door to let him in for breakfast. Oreo focused on his own backdoor, mentally urging his Human to come down. The window was tight. This was Oreo’s only chance to warn his Human of the bird’s whereabouts before Luca came back out.
Luckily, the Mother Human came into the kitchen and opened the back door. Oreo took his chance, springing from the roof and sprinting to his Human.
“She’s by the shed! By the shed!” Oreo screamed, greeting his human with a head to the hand.
The Mother Human looked up, her eyes narrowed and she spotted the baby bird nestled in the grass. Quick, a hand tapped Oreo on the back of the head, directing him inside.
”Oh for goodness sake!” Oreo was locked behind the glass doors. “I fucking fought for that thing. Where’s the trust in this house?”
The Mother Human dashed upstairs and returned with a shoebox and the Human Tom. She punctured holes in the tops and sides and the Tom gathered grass and worms in the garden (after making sure Oreo was locked behind the doors of course -buffoon).
At least with the Humans in the garden, Luca wouldn’t try and kill the sparrow. The Human Tom placed the baby bird inside the box, then stopped before the shed.
Oreo’s ears pricked when he heard the Mother Bird calling for its young.
“She’s here! She’s here!” Oreo called, on his hind legs and padding the glass window of the door with his front paws. It seemed the Human Tom had heard the same tweets and left the box open on the grass for both birds to be reunited.
“You’re not as dumb as you look,” Oreo quipped.
Like a flash, the Mother Bird landed on the top ridge of the fence. The baby bird flapped and bundled out of box, fell over on top of itself and back and forth in an attempt to get close to it’s mother. The Mother Bird kept calling, tweeting loud and desperate. The baby responded, strained tweets beckoning for help. It was heartbreaking for Oreo to watch. All he wanted was for the chick to fly to the fence, and that’s all the Mother Bird wanted too.
Sadly, the baby bird couldn’t. She lacked strength and enough air to be lifted. If the poor thing couldn’t make it out of the tree, at that height on its first flight, then there was a slim chance she could pick itself off the ground now.
Oreo watched intently as did the Humans, both wishing for the same outcome.
The Mother Bird did not fly down to its baby’s aid. It fluttered from fence panel to fence panel, urging tweet by tweet for its young to fly up to her.
It was no use, the bird could not get any lift.
Male sparrows came to watch the spectacle, taking a viewing seat on Luca’s fence - not interfering at all and just observing.
“What are you doing?” Oreo cried. “Get down and help her!” The birds did nothing.
“Get back Oreo,” the Mother Human nudged him aside.
“What the?” Oreo was flabbergasted. “I’m behind a door you stupid bitch, what am I going to do?”
The two Humans spoke about survival of the fittest, and that parent birds would not look after a weak chick.
“You’re bloody terrible you are!” Oreo growled to the humans. “You’re as bad as Luca!” Oreo got back onto his hind legs and leant on the door.
“Don’t give up baby bird! Keep going!” Oreo had faith, yet he may have been the only one. Even the parent bird began losing hope. The male birds flew off first, satisfied that they had seen enough - and that it was not enough.
The Mother Bird stayed a little while longer but soon came to a conclusion. Her wings took flight and she was gone.
Oreo was stung; he fell back and took a breath, watching the baby fall about in the grass, tweeting it’s cries.
The back door swung open and the Human Tom picked up the baby bird and gently placed her in the shoebox. Not soon after she was back in the shed.
‘No way was she going to escape that,’ although Oreo did think the poor thing would panic in the darkness. Hopefully, she’ll get used to it. He thought to himself how saddening it was for the adult birds to give up on their young like that. Perhaps that’s what happened between him and his mother before the Humans adopted him.
On the plus side, the Humans seem to have adopted this baby bird. They also gave Oreo a better life than he could have ever imagined. If they showed the same love to the bird that they did to him, then she was far better off with them and not her biological family of sparrows. He would look after her regardless, so in essence: a happy ending.
After a night on patrol and an already emotionally exhausting morning, Oreo earned himself a well-deserved rest. He jumped onto the garden furniture and nestled down on one of the cushioned chairs; it had never felt so comfortable. The humans went about their daily routine and Oreo wanted to catch up on his.
Fat chance of that with Luca climbing over the fence.
“Go away,” Oreo grumbled, curled up.
“I’ve not come to fight,” Luca said softly. “I just witnessed the harsh cruelty of nature. It somewhat reminds me of my mother.”
Oreo could hear an apology in his voice and accepted it. “Sit down Luca, let’s get some sleep.”
Luca curled up on the chair beside him and they both shut their eyes and drifted off.
Thursday Afternoon - 14:00pm
The two felines were startled when the back doors to the garden suddenly opened. He yawned as the Human Tom strode past him straight to the shed. Both Luca and him were in the garden, although he guessed from their relaxing demeanour that the Human wasn’t wary of the cats springing to attack.
“About bloody time,” Oreo snorted. “Finally he trusts us.”
Luca and Oreo on the garden furniture.
The Human peered into the shed and retrieved the box. Oreo looked over hoping the baby was ok. Yet the expression on the Human boys face said otherwise. The Human’s hand went into the box and pulled out the sparrow. She was very still and very limp.
Oreo could see the Human handling the bird, looking for signs of life. Yet, he did not find what he was looking for.
Oreo sighed. After everything, the poor baby bird had given up on him and herself. ‘That’s what happens when your family gives up on you’ Oreo thought.
“If only she stayed long enough to see that we would have been that family for her.” Oreo said out loud.
“Sorry mate,” Luca said solemnly. “Nature is a spiteful cow.”
“If she’s spiteful, she’s probably a cat,” Oreo said.
Oreo watched as the Human Tom opened the back gates to the alleyway and place the bird amongst the bushes and brambles.
As he walked back to the house, Oreo raised his head and the boy gave him a stroke.
“Thanks for the thought Oreo, but don’t bring back any presents again please,” said the Human. “Especially alive. If anything, it's less heartbreaking when they’re dead.”
Oreo irritatingly received an arrogant smile from Luca. Oreo accepted the human’s stroke but not the comment.
“You’re all dicks,” Oreo huffed.
End.
Oreo and Human Tom looking out into the alley.
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