Illustrations by: Sonata Q. Rufin
Chapter 01 - Finding a Baby
One night, I saw this blackish
little thing being played with by our cat – “a baby something”, my husband pointed out. I thought it was dead.
I don’t like furry little things (an understatement,
actually). And I abhor the rodent family. “But
it’s a bird”, my husband said. All right, so the little one deserves a
dignified funeral.
“Get it”, I said. I didn’t want the
cat toying with it. “No, if you want to
do something for it, do it yourself”, my husband said. I took a deep
breath. I know when my husband’s “no” meant “no”. I’m not pleased about the trap
I found myself in but I couldn’t back out anymore so I shooed away our cat, and
with eyes closed, I bent to pick the little bird up.
Ewwww. It was furry. And too
soft. The poor thing fell (I dropped it actually, unintentionally.) And fell
again.
The third try, I tried so
hard not to drop it anymore. With a matching yell (to release the tension), I
got a firm hold on it (relatively). And to
my surprise, I discovered that the little bird was still, amazingly, alive.
With hurt little legs though (“the cat’s fault”, I told everyone, though nobody
believed me, especially my daughter who laughed so hard when she found out that
I dropped the poor thing twice).
I am not, by normal
standards, an animal lover. But who can resist helping a poor baby bird who’s
sick and lonely and just needing a mama?
So I took it under my wing
(no pun intended). I found it a box and made it a soft bed. I put it somewhere
safe where it would be difficult for a cockroach, mouse or ant to reach it.
(The cat stays out of the house so he’s not a problem.)
Then I slept. In the
morning, the little babe was alive and awake. But it was a weekday so I had to
leave it in the care of my mom.
Chapter 2: Amazing Love
When I got home, there were
so much stories about the little baby.
First, it had a name:
Tokoyami (if you can’t relate go watch Hero Academy.) I nicknamed it Toki.
This is how it happened.
My mom said she heard some
chirping outside the house, so she took little Toki, still tucked in his baby
bed and placed him in the garden. (No, the cat wasn’t there so it was alright.)
The baby made some chirping
sound, and moments later, two pretty birds swooped down on him. They were so
happy, my mom said. Or at least that’s how they sounded coz they belted out
some loud and kind of high-pitched chirps while they flew around their baby.
Then they left for a while and came back to feed him with something. And again.
And again.
When they were gone for quite
some time, Mom took Toki inside the house. Then she went to the kitchen. When
she came back to the living room, guess what she saw? Mama Bird (actually, it
could’ve been Papa Bird) squeezing herself between the jalousie window to get
to little Toki!!!
Chapter 3: Hope in Sadness
When I got home and heard the
story, and when my mom showed me the pics and the videos (Yes, she took some
shots but they’re not too clear), I felt stunned.
Love,
it seems, is indeed universal. And as simple and basic were the ways in which
the parent Birds cared for their little one – looking for him, feeding him,
fussing over him – the impact was so powerful.
I fed Toki that evening. He
would open his mouth to me, and I would give him tiny pieces of bread. I also
gave him water. I felt like I got myself a real baby – a baby I wanted so much
to survive so his parents can get him back, teach him to fly, and show him the
world.
But I didn’t have that kind
of happy ending. At least, not yet. Because the following morning, we found him
not breathing anymore. Toki was gone.
I’m glad I believe in heaven. I’m glad I believe in a very powerful God
who puts premium on love, because with these beliefs, I can dare hope that
somewhere in time, Toki will see his parents again, in a much more beautiful
world, where they can be happy together. Forever.