Destiny, the Bird

Tonight I sent Eric outside to play.  It was a beautiful evening.  It seemed like a good idea.  Kacy was in the backyard.
Shortly after he went outside, Eric came running in, saying there was a cute little bird and he wanted to play with it.  I followed him outside.  Sure enough, there was a cute little bird lying in the grass right next to Kacy.  Have I mentioned Kacy's new hobby of hunting????

 The bird was quite soft and fluffy.  At least that's what Eric said.  I had no intention of touching it.  Jonathan quickly identified the bird as a chipping sparrow.  His reading/social studies teacher is a bird fanatic.  We googled it, and I have to admit that I agree with him.

 Eric's smile.  Love this smile.  At this point, he is thinking we will be keeping the bird.  Inside our house.  He says we can get another bird cage and keep it next to Lucy's cage.  At this point, I realized I needed to have one of those difficult conversations with Eric.  You know....the kind that teaches about the circle of life.

 Eric did not like my assessment of the bird's prognosis.  We agreed to make a bed for the bird, as I stayed firm in my stance to not bring it inside.  Eric suggested I take it to the vet in the morning.

 This is the bed we made for the bird.  Eric did not wish to name the bird, as he did not want to get too attached to it.  That lasted for 2 minutes before he named it Destiny.

I wish I could say there was a happy ending.  Eric sat by Destiny outside for over an hour, petting him, watching him, trying to get him to eat.  I brought him some hot cocoa.  I made him go inside to take a bath, promising him that he could go back outside to sit with Destiny when he was done.  He made me promise to sit and watch Destiny while he was in the bath to make sure he was breathing.  By the time Eric was done with his bath, Destiny was, um, well....he was still warm, but did not appear to breathing all that well.  He actually was not breathing at all.  There was a little breeze the ruffled his feathers to make it appear he was breathing, but....

I broke the news to Eric.  Poor kid is broken hearted.  We agreed to have a funeral for Destiny tomorrow after school.

So, now I have Eric sobbing, somewhat uncontrollably.  Jonathan has started to cry because Eric is so upset.  Megan is bawling because she feels she need to cry since both of her brothers are crying.  Don is in Michigan.  I am drinking Bacardi.