Old Dogs and Mockingbirds

  Sometimes I ponder if critters remember the kind acts that we do for them.  Years ago, my brother and his little granddaughter brought two tiny, unfeathered mockingbirds to me.  The little girl looked at me with big sad eyes and asked if I could "make them live?"  It seems that her dog had knocked down the nest, killed two other little ones and the mother bird as she tried to protect them.  What could I do but agree to try....and that "try" was going to be an uphill battle, as far as I could see.  But...we do what we have to do and, to my surprise, not only did the little birds live, they thrived!  All of this gobbledygook leads up to an incident of today.  As I was out walking the old dog, a small head popped up out of the birdbath. Yep, a mockingbird was between the old dog and me.  I thought surely the bird would take flight as we were mere feet from the bath.  Nope, that mockingbird eyed the dog cautiously for a moment and went back to its splashing with nary a care.

  As I watched the bird frolicking in the water, memories of the two little ones "Knox" and "Shelby" (as my sweet daughter-in-law, Joanna, dubbed them) came flooding back.  Could this be one of the pair?  If so, that would explain the lack of fear of both humans and dogs.  I was the one who became "Mom" to the birds...the one who fed them, taught them to fly and how to forage.  Fear was lost due to the fact that I was family to them.  Not seeing the dog as a predator could come from the fact that Ms. Ez, the Bayou Dog (I sure miss that dog!), mothered the tiny birds as much as I did.  She was their protector.  Ms. Ez guarded the tiny birds as if they were her own pups.  That may have instilled in the young birds that dogs were helpful and not to be feared.

  Could this be one of the little ones from so long ago?  Had one survived all these years and returned to say "Hello"?  Most likely this was just a quirky incident that had nothing to do with my little foundlings but it warmed the heart enough to bring a smile.  Sometimes, it only takes a glimpse to brighten the day.