The Rescue

It’s lunchtime, and all I’m thinking about is getting a sandwich and returning to the day job.

Fifteen minutes later, I had an entirely different set of thoughts.

Let me explain.

As I’m leaving my day job to head outside, I happened to notice a woman standing next to the electronic parking kiosk. Those kiosks are designed so that you can pay for street parking, but sometimes the kiosks are a bit kludgy.

Then I noticed the woman bent down to her knees. Her gaze was locked onto something on the ground. I’m thinking that she dropped her credit card on the sidewalk or something.

No. Apparently she was trying to examine a fallen bird on the ground. The bird – most likely a starling or a house sparrow, whatever flies around lower Albany that isn’t a pigeon – tried to flap its wings, but couldn’t get enough lift.

The woman was concerned. And yeah, so was I. Nobody wants to see any injured creature.

Between the two of us, we were able to coax the bird into her cupped hand. She told me that a couple of her friends from work were on their way with a little box for the bird’s safety, and that they would take the injured creature to an animal shelter or the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society.

The poor little birdie looked scared and nervous, but between the two of us calmly talking to it and assuring it that we meant no harm, the bird slowly calmed down.

“Wait a second,” I said. “Let me get a picture of this and send it to you, because this is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. You never know when you’ll have a moment like this to provide kindness to a hurt animal.” With that,I took a photo of her with the bird, and texted the picture to her. We said goodbye, and I went back to get lunch.

Oh, and before any one of you says, “Pics, Chuck, or it didn’t happen,” I got your pic for you. Although in the interests of privacy, I’ve cropped the woman’s face out of frame.

Watch the birdie, little birdie …

I’m sure that by this time, the bird is in a new location, either getting some rehabilitation or being re-introduced to a flock.

Sometimes you do a niceness. And we need more niceness in this world.

Trust me on this.