I looked out my kitchen window one morning, and a baby mockingbird was in my driveway. My next-door neighbor’s cat roamed freely, and I thought, “If their cat sees that bird, the bird is a goner.” So I got a birdcage from my closet, and I dashed outside to the bird. I put it in the cage, and I took it to a veterinarian, for I thought the vet would give the bird to an animal rehabilitator. Unfortunately, the vet did not know one; so I brought the bird home, and I called an animal rehabilitator. She told me to put the bird in a basket, and hang the basket from a tree limb. The baby bird’s parents would come to it. I did as instructed, and soon the baby bird was on the ground. I watched it from my kitchen window. Soon the baby’s parents flew to it and began caring for the youngster.

I spent most of the next 8 days watching that little bird as its parents raised it. From dawn to dusk each day, the parents brought food to the little bird and deposited it in the baby’s wide-open mouth. I made sure the bird stayed on the far east side of my back yard, and the cat stayed on the far west side. As you can imagine, I got very little work of my own done those 8 days. As I watched those birds, I thought, “If all humans cared for their young as diligently as those birds care for theirs, no children would be mistreated or neglected.” After 8 days, the baby could fly, and it left my property. Now, whenever I see or hear a mockingbird, I wonder, “Are you my little mockingbird?”