Bird Girl

I always loved going to Camp Wabashi in the summer. One year I fell off the top of the bunk bed and had to go to the hospital and get several stitches in my chin. When I talked to my parents on the phone I cried because I didn't want them to come get me. I wanted to stay at camp. That's how much I loved it.

There were award ceremonies at the end of camp and one year I got "The Bird Girl" award. It sounds like a really weird award, because it was.

When I think of "bird girl" I imagine some creepy person dressed up like a bird.

However I promise that is not why I got this award. I also didn't get the award because of my tendency to have flying dreams where I fly like a bird.

I got the award for trying to save a little baby bird's life, because I'm a sucker from small baby animals. I was leaving the camp cafeteria when I heard a peeping noise coming from beside the building.

It was a tiny baby bird that had fallen from a nest high up under the roof of the building. I took one look at the little puff of feathers and knew that I would take care of it for the rest of its life. It was such a cute puff.

 Until it stretched out its neck and then it looked dumb.

I put the little puff into a Styrofoam cup. It wouldn't stop chirping and I realized that I needed to feed it. I hate worms. I can handle most bugs but worms are disgusting and I hate touching them, but I knew I had to make a sacrifice for the bird if I was going to keep it alive.

I started gathering up worms with the help of my friends at camp and then I took a stick and butchered the worms and put them in an empty can of coke to store them.

I placed the bird in the cup by my bed that night. The next morning despite the fact that the little puff had refused to eat any worms it had fallen out of the cup and barfed purple grossness all over.

My counselor said that the bird was sick and couldn't live without its mother and I should just leave it in the woods. I refused to take her advice and I carried the bird around all day still trying to force it to eat the mutilated worms and drink from a water bottle.

That night I placed the bird in the cup by my bed and the next morning I woke up and the bird was on the ground dead.

 

I should have gotten this award: