Did baby bird survive ninja cat? – Hayley Matthews

We had a situation during the week with a baby bird hiding under a step in the garden whilst the neighbour’s cat terrorised it as the mum flapped frantically trying to save it.

Mr Hayley shouted for help as he set about the garden with his industrial-sized water gun. He shooed the cat away but the baby bird still sat shaking under the step.

I was so scared to touch it because I’ve heard so much about mothers rejecting their young once a human has been involved or left a scent.

But the mum was still there hours later and I could see her distress. We also discovered a dead chick which appeared to have been killed by the neighbour’s ninja cat.

We don’t know if they fell out the nest in an attempt to fly or if the cat got a hold of the nest and decided to have a mini-buffet to himself, however, regardless, we were desperate to help.

We lifted the bird near the mum and placed it on the wall then waited. The mum was still calling out but the baby didn’t utter a sound. We waited a bit more and, unsure of the bird’s injuries and state, we called the SSPCA.

Their recorded message on the phone line was that they are getting lots of calls about birds and not to interfere unless the bird is injured. We didn’t know to what extent the cat had terrorised the poor bird so we stayed on the line to speak to them.

After a few details, they decided to send someone out to check the bird for puncture wounds. The officer was with us after about 30 minutes and gave the bird a good checking over and harrah, declared no injuries! She said they’d try and put it near the mum as it looked like it was a few days from fleeing the nest anyways.

She tried to put the bird on a branch to see if it would hold on as it was fully feathered but it fell to the ground and I swear we could not find it! We looked and looked and looked and looked.

The officer reassured me that the mum would come feed the baby and hopefully it would be learning to branch hop soon anyway. So I put seed out and tried to keep the cats away. The officer said there was about a 50/50 chance of survival if they took the chicks in, so I’m hoping it was nature’s way of saying “this little chick needs to stay in the garden near its mum”.

We looked again later that afternoon and again that night. I kept waking all night wondering and hoping that the little chick would be ok.

We checked again in the morning and still couldn’t see it anywhere. I’ve never been so frustrated at not being able to help and not being able to find something. We just couldn’t find it.

The mum was still about in the morning so I’m hoping that, once we’d gone inside, the chick had called out to her for food and help. I’m also hoping that the big slinky cat from down the road (who also bit me recently, leaving me with a numb arm and a week’s worth of antibiotics) didn’t get to it. He’s like the Shere Khan of the back garden and has an arrogance about him that would leave most cat lovers feeling slightly nervous. I’ve been looking still and checking the garden in the hope of finding a little chick learning to fly but I’m afraid that all I’ve found so far is a smug cat. Here’s hoping the chick was quick at learning to fly and is currently digging up worms for lunch somewhere.

Miserable Moira strikes again

A few weeks ago I wrote about my petty neighbour – ‘Miserable Moira’ – who’d kicked off about us having a very small trampoline in a very large shared garden.

Yes you’d think being in lockdown with two children would mean that some people would realise these are unprecedented times and would be a little forgiving, but no!

So Miserable Moira is still at it trying to get a rise out of me by being very passive aggressive and petty.

She’s only gone and pegged an empty ice-lolly wrapper, that was on the grass in the back garden, onto my washing line!

The message was loud and clear “this is yours – bin it!”

However, anyone who knows me understands my hate for plastic floating about the Earth and I am scrupulous at putting wrappers etc in the bin and the recycling. It also wasn’t one of ours anyway.

So I pegged it on her line. She pegged it back on mine and I pegged it back on hers.

This passive aggressive pegging of lolly wrappers has gone on for two weeks now!

She also moves my washing poles to change direction so I moved hers and she came right down stairs, moving it back again.

What do I do? She’s going to end up with that lolly wrapper being put where the sun don’t shine!

You’d think people would have more to worry about than being so petty but as they say “Nowt those as queer as folk!” So to all the Miserable Moiras out there – have a day off!

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