by Roddy J Dryer

Created on: June 28, 2008

Living in a rural region of Central Florida, we tend to find a great deal of wild animals in need of assistance. More often than not, my wife and I will let nature take its course if it appears an animal is struggling with a natural issue, since we believe interfering with nature is just not the best philosophy. I don't believe in rescuing a nest of mockingbird chicks from marauding crows, for example. However, there have been several times we've taken in birds and other animals that need a helping hand in order to survive at all.

We're not going to pass by any Gopher Tortoise that's been hit by a car. On numerous occasions, we've brought them home to treat for minor cracks in their shell, or if the damage is beyond our abilities, we know by first name people who are better at it than we are. It seemed that for a while, it was the facts of life that recovering Gophers were destined to wander our home, getting cornered behind the couch and needing rescuing from even that, but for the most part just being a part of the family. But lately, it's been birds.

Rescuing baby birds, now that we've done it as much as we have, seems to be the easiest and most problem-free aspect of helping troubled wild animals. After a day or two of struggling to get them to take in nourishment, you can't appease them enough. In short, once they recognize you as the caretaker, they'll scream their fuzzy heads off in order to make you keep the stuff coming.

The trick, I suppose, is getting the birds to a point that they can leave the nest. Read: your nest. At the time of this writing, we have a crow in our midst, who, while entertaining and rich in personality (after all, he is someone's soul, right?) needs to go out, get his own place and a job. When we first found him, he was perhaps two or three weeks old, on the ground, and desperate. My wife just happened to come across him at work. She put him in a box and it all started from there. After a couple of days working to convince him we weren't going to eat him, he continually begged for food, but also wanted to perch on your finger or shoulder. Now, some weeks later, he still begs for food (even though he has food in the cage with him that he is quite capable of eating) but he no longer wants other sorts of attention. I see a college-age teen who needs to get out and find a life. The wife and I go back and forth over what to do, because we fear we might have set him up for failure by caring for him, but he would have died in those bushes

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