rockover

Kimmie, this is for you.
Not many of you know, but Kimmie is a new mom. Yep, a mom. Can you believe that? Of all things we think of when we see Kym, being a mom is not one of them. Well, she's a mom to dogs/cats/birds, but we don't ever think of her as A MOM. That all changed when we found a day old bird in my front lawn (Last Sunday). It had dropped about 2 stories from it's nest. (Grass was 2 weeks overdue for a mowin, so it was a plush fall.) Well, Kim elected to take the "starling" home and see if she could take care of it until it is ready to leave the roost. So, without further ado, I'll include some of the commentary straight from Kimberly's email. Hope you enjoy as much as we did. By the way, JAREK is the birds name. Don't have any clue where she got it from. (Jim, Azucena, Randy, Evelyn, Kim) I guess it's better than babyboo!

Kim (K in JAREK); next day after baby is found - "Just wanted to let you know the baby bird is doing fine. My vet agreed that he is extremely young and his chances of making it are slim. The vet advised me to feed him wet puppy food. It stinks but he seems to like it! "
"I take him to work and a co-worker watched him this morning when I had to go to a meeting and several others have offered to babysit. Apparently, there are a lot of animal lovers up here. Even one lady who has raised a few baby birds herself (but not quite as young as this one). He is still eating like a pig so I guess that is a good sign! " Thanks to all the co-workes who are helping out.
From Azucena (The A in JAREK) - "If you go to the website, starlings can be tamed but they can be ornery too." (Sounds like interesting conversation. Sorry if I don't include all the conversation going back and forth. Evelyn (E in JAREK) has some comments going on too, like babysitting.)
From Evie - "Actually an imprinted starling should not be returned to the wild." Imprinted. Curious word, that.
Kim - "Jarek is still demanding regular feedings and eating like a pig. Today he even opened his eyes a tiny bit while I was feeding him. I turned him so he could see me better and he immediately maneuvered himself so he was NOT looking at me. I am trying to not take if personally!"
How the name got to be:
Randy (R in JAREK) - "By the way, does IT have a name? How does Kajer sound? Jarek? (not much you can do with our intials, is there...)"
Kim - "Well I have been calling him Dudley but I really like Jarek."
Evelyn - "I like Jarek. It sounds like one of those characters from Star Trek DS9"

Kim: Almost finally...Jarek is still doing well. He has his eyes open most of the time and this morning he started standing up! But, of course, he only does this when he wants food - I guess he thinks I might miss the subtle hint of him screaming with his neck stretched and mount wide open.

Finally, for now anyway...Jarek paid a visit Friday night. We all got to see mommy feeding him/her. Very curious little bird. Kim is the lucky one getting to see the hourly growth of feathers, wings, color. Those feet are pretty darn long, though.
Cute how he times his dumps. Right when Azucena handed him back, it didn't take 2 seconds for JAREK to let his mom know he was home again. Azucena's got warm hands so he settled in real good in her palms. I'm still wondering how he can hold his head up with that huge beak.