During this free-form post, I’d like to write an ode to the lovely bird Penny Feng-Altayar, that Jean and I found and nurtured, until she could be taken to a new home.
I found Penny an eventful Wednesday afternoon. I came back to UTowers on my break, because I forgot my laptop charger at home. Fatefully, I took the back door out of UTowers, a tip Jean and I learned from Sahil to get to the QLine faster. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something rustling around. For a moment, I thought nothing of it, then, I backtracked.
When I looked down, what should I see, but a little bird flipped upside down, flailing on the ground. I ran back to my apartment, and grabbed everything I thought I would need to take care of this bird: gloves, a hand towel, bread (which is actually terrible for birds), an apple slice (which it wouldn’t eat), and water (which actually would have drowned the bird, because it was stunned). I called as many animal clinics as I could, and the response was that the bird probably flew into a window and would be okay in an hour.
In my panicked state, I couldn’t find anywhere near UTowers to keep the bird, so I did what any normal person would do, and took the bird on the QLine with me. At this point, my supervisor Jillian (hi) kindly reminded me that I was already half an hour late to a meeting and could I please let them know next I planned on rescuing birds on the clock. When I got to TechTown, I put Penny (who was still an unnamed ‘Bub’ at this point) and went to work.
When Jean and I got off work in the evening, I told her we had to go check on Bub and make sure they (we still didn’t know the gender at this point, either) had flown off. What we found, instead, was poor little Bub, still flipped upside down, flailing around on the ground. So, we again, did what any logical person would do: picked Bubby up, and brought him/her on the QLine with us.
While we were waiting, we came up with the names for Bubby. We decided on Rodney if it was a boy, and Penelope if it was a girl. (surprise it ended up being a girl) We took Penny home, and got her set up in a nice, 5-star shoe-boxed lined with the only spare face towel I had. Now came the hard part: figuring out what the hell to do with a bird that couldn’t even sit upright. After calling many animal clinics, and sending many pictures and videos, I learned that Penny was a European starling, an invasive species. Many locations said they would have to put Penny down for this reason, and one place even said they’d be “happy” to do it for me if that’s what I decided to do. (i don’t think they meant it like that, but it was still weird as hell).
Finally, however, there was a breakthrough. A woman named Joleen from the Caputo Animal Hospital in Dearborn (shout out to her for being amazing) told me that if I couldn’t figure anything out, she would come pick up Penny from me. So, Penny spent the first night in our closet. The second day was the task of getting some water into Penny. Jean and I spent almost half an hour trying to position Penny so she could drink some water.
At the end of the night, one of my friends came to visit, and brought a giant bag of bird seed like 20 times the size of Penny, but she wouldn’t even touch the stuff, so instead, we dripped sugar water onto her beak and she drank up. The next morning, at 8 a.m., Joleen came to pick up Penny and get her some well-needed care.
Joleen has been sending me updates ever since. She told me that they found roundworms in Penny, but that she made it through the first night successfully. She’s living with a woman named Ms. Marge, and has robin brother and sisters. She always a pigeon boyfriend named Louie ;))))) who wears little pigeon tuxedos. Penny is going to be used for animal education, because she’s so comfortable being held. (she likes to hang out in the crook of Mr. Marge’s neck) She’s eating and drinking and living a great life. Even though she’ll never fly again, and her head will always droop a little, and she’s always going to walk a little weird, she’s alive and happy and thriving.
And I guess that’s the message of all of this. Penny is an animal that most people would overlook. But her life was worth fighting for. She is now bringing so many people happiness, and has found her forever home where she’s being treated so well. Animals are worth taking a chance on and fighting for. So please give animals a shot when you find them. Even if you don’t have the means to take care of it, someone else does, and will gladly do it.
