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Greetings, fellow animal lovers! Yes, an entire year of monthly Fur Baby blogs has passed and I am no where near running low on wonderful fur and feathered members of our family to introduce you to!!

For our first featured creature for this New Year, I am actually writing a tribute to a little winged soul who has since passed to the Rainbow Bridge, but his story is certainly worth sharing. Each cold wintry day, when I look out my kitchen window, I never cease to be amazed at the fortitude displayed by the wild birds in my backyard. How on earth do they survive for weeks and weeks in the frigid temperatures, those tiny little feather covered bodies, hopping around in the snow on those two little stick legs, or flitting from tree branch to birdfeeder on delicate wings, chirping and singing all the while!!  They are truly one of nature's miracles!

We were lucky enough to have one of these little miracles as a house guest for a while, a few years back. He actually became a beloved family member just like all of our pets. While living in the Los Angeles area, I came home from work at the radio station one day to find my next door neighbor on my front walkway waiting for me...anxiously glancing over at one of the shrubs below my living room window. He proceeded to tell me that while I was gone, and hubby was busy working in his studio, a nest of house finches had blown out of a very tall palm tree along the sidewalk between our houses. It had turned upside down as it hit the grass below, and he had come outside to see the mother bird frantically hopping around the upside down nest. He wanted to help, and turned the nest right side up, as mama bird watched from a nearby tree, eventually flying away. Inside the nest were three baby finches....still so young that they barely had any feathers and their beaks were still outlined in yellow.

My neighbor picked up the nest, which was in several pieces, and placed it inside the shrub in front of my living room, waiting for me to come home, since I was the "animal" person. Well, I had always heard that you should leave the nest and babies alone in this type of situation, so that the parent birds could come back and take care of them. So we waited...and waited...and waited...for about 24 hours. And no mama bird. And no papa bird. Not even a babysitter bird, ever returned.

I called my friends at the Wildlife Center and asked what I should do. They said if I did not try to feed them, they would die. They suggested feeding them tiny pieces of dog kibble, that was softened with water. I said, how do I do THAT?? They suggested finding a small twig, with flattened, spoon-shaped end and then placing the tiny bite of food on the end of the twig, and then that I should try to get it into their tiny mouths......Every two hours! We brought them inside, into a quiet room, placed them in a warm, feather and cotton stuffing-lined shoebox, under a heat lamp, and proceeded to try to feed them. For about the first ten attempts, they would NOT open their mouths. I knew they were hungry, but apparently I did NOT even look a teensy bit like their mother and they were not about to accept food from a giant stranger with a twig!! However, later that evening, a small miracle occured. I was able to gently coax one of them into opening his mouth and he ate the tiny piece of mushy kibble! WELL NOW.....that changed everything! The dining room was open!

Now, every time I came into the room the sounds of PEEP PEEP PEEP PEEP began....just like you've always heard coming from a bird's nest in your yard. And as soon as they saw me with the little twig and bowl of mushy kibble, all three sat their in their little shoe box with mouths wide open. I could tell when they were full, because they all of a sudden got very sleepy and quiet. They were all so adorable!! Well, this went on for several weeks....they got bigger, got their feathers, and graduated to a small flight cage with perches, which we placed on a table in front of a big window. Soon they were flying around in their cage, drinking from their water bowl, and eating a mix of gourmet seed, bird food pellets, and tiny greens and berries.....just like our exotic pet birds.

One day, we knew it was time to release them to join the wild finches in the neighborhood. We took the cage outdoors, opened the cage door and out they flew....one, two.....and......um.....well, birdie number three did not want to leave his flight cage. He was the biggest of the three (at the time we did not know he was a male, as his coloring had not come in yet...but as it turned out, he was....a beautiful coral colored male house finch.) At any rate, we tried to coax this little guy out on his own, we even picked him up and placed him outside of his cage in the courtyard, but he always came back to his cage.  He liked sitting on our finger. He started singing every morning in his cage, while swinging on his tiny perch. In other words, he had bonded to us and was happy to be an "IN House Finch"! So, we named him Atticus Finch, after one of our favorite characters from the book and film, To Kill A Mockingbird, and for several years, he lived with us, and sang out the window with his beautiful, lilting songs, every day.

When we moved from California to Pennsylvania, we decided to bring Atticus with us, and he rode happily in a bird travel carrier between us in the front seat of our SUV all the way across the USA. He loved his new view of the world (and all the PA House Finches) from his new spot in the front upstairs window of our bedroom, and remained a continuous source of joy to my husband and me for the first couple of years that we lived here. I am not sure how long the outdoor finches live on average, but I'm sure Atticus, with his gourmet diet, and luxury digs, probably hung around a while longer than most. One sad day, he decided to fly off to the Rainbow Bridge and we placed him in a special spot in our garden, the spot which he looked out upon, singing joyfully, every day. We will never forget him, and feel blessed that he chose to share his life with us in a different way than our other wild bird friends.

His legacy is that we take special care to be mindful of our outdoor feathered friends, in all seasons of the year. We have many bird feeders around our yard and gardens, and fountains and birdbaths to provide water....some are heated to provide water in the winter time as well. We leave suet cakes out for them as well, and try to leave part of the yard as "natural" as possible, so that they have plenty of places to seek shelter, along with the birdhouses that we've nailed to a post or a tree here and there.

They reward us daily with their sweet songs and happy chatter and beautiful streaks of color, as they fly quickly from tree to tree....from place to place in our yard, going about their day. Nowadays, there is a particular male cardinal, who perches on the highest bough of the highest pine tree in our yard, singing his little heart out each day.

I feel he has taken over the job of "melodious overseer" from dear Atticus Finch, to remind us that in every day, there is something to sing about and be thankful for.

Keep an eye on the feathered friends in your yard throughout the year, and even more importantly, listen to the songs they are singing for you!

With love this winter season,

Carolyn and my "little zoo"

P.S.  Atticus was very camera-shy, so we thought he would like us to share photos of some of his distant family members instead!! He looked VERY much like these little guys!!  :-)