The Best Friend We Never Knew

Yesterday I walked out on to the deck and saw a terrible sight—a little dead bird.

I instantly worried that I had unintentionally poisoned the poor thing by not cleaning the bird feeders well enough or keeping the bird bath clean enough, so I took them all inside for a good soaking in bleach water.

Jared saw what I was doing and asked why, and I told him about the poor dead bird.  He, of course, immediately told his sisters.

The next thing I heard was Rachel shrieking from the deck.  “Oh no!!!!”  she screamed her sadness.

She recovered pretty quickly and came into the house to find me.  “Mom,” she began, “if I get a plastic bag can I use it to pick up the bird?”

Before I could even ask why on earth she wanted to pick up the dead bird, she gave me the answer.  “It’s so we can have a funeral and bury the bird.”

Far be it from me to keep my animal loving child from being compassionate.  And fortunately we had a brand new shoebox waiting to be used as a bird coffin.

For a little while I lost track of what my kids were doing, but after a while I thought I heard them out in the front yard.  Surprised that they were out there, I opened the door to check on them.

Armed with sharp gardening tools, they were industriously hacking at the lawn.

Now I would not pretend by any stretch of the imagination that my lawn is much more than a patch of nicely mown weeds.  But they are my weeds, and I want them where they are.

I redirected them towards the natural area and told them to have at it.



A short time later I was informed by discouraged faces that the ground was entirely too hard for them to finish digging the necessary 2 foot deep hole, and that they would leave it to dad to dig when he got home.

In the meantime, they had more preparations.



Just what any strange dearly departed bird needs.  A tombstone.



Just in case you can’t read that, let me help you.

“Pecky, Gon but not fergoten.”

Pecky??  They named the dead bird?!?


When Russ came home the burial was successfully completed, and today the mourners have decorated the plot.



I sure love these kids!!


(And yes, it’s obvious that Jenna needs another lesson on date formatting.  What can I say…this is the girl who learned when she was 3 to write her name with either hand, and in any direction…)