DeeKnow’s Grotto

I got a phone call at work on Friday from a distressed Kym who explained she'd just rescued a bird from the evil clutches of Kola-the-Killer and wanted to know what to do with it. She described it as ... "cute, colourful with a tan chest and a white coloured collar round its neck"

Despite Kyms claim that it seemed un-injured, I'm thinking to myself that I'm gonna have to bash it on the head when I get home, but we talked for a bit and decided the best thing was to put the bird in the laundry to recover and close the door so the cat couldnt get at it.

Later on I check the bird out for myself and discover its one of our native King Fishers (or Kotare in maori). Cute little fellahs, and normally pretty wary of critters like cats, and not often seen on the ground at all. Injury wise there was nothing visible, no broken legs, neck seemed OK and the little fellah was quite able to squawk and peck at fingers, but it seemd immobile for some reason, wouldnt walk far and definately wasnt flying anywhere.

So we ring the vets to see what they reckon, and their suggestion is that it might be suffering from shock (no kidding !!!) and to leave it overnight in a dark room. We did that and in the morning it was still pretty much the same, so I sat it on the window shelf in my office and after awhile it half-arse-flew out the window and landed on the table in the back yard.

At this stage I'm thinkin... good luck little fellah, dont stay there too long tho. We lock Kola in the house (again) and a few minutes later we hear SQUAWK.. SQUAWK... look out the window and there goes little Kotare in the jaws of the neighbours cat.

Oh well.  You win some, You lose some.

Funny thing (at least I thought it was funny) is that when the cat disappeared over the fence next door I soon after heard the girl next door yelling for her mother going "Mum, mum .. the cat's got a bird".  No doubt the thing was about to be rescued, a cat was to be denied a meal, and the whole ugly cycle was about to repeat itself all over again.

5:29:56 PM