So a bird falls from the nest

...in our backyard. It's a cardinal, because the parents are in the tree above freaking out. The chick is flapping around, but can't get up.

So the humans try to help. We try. We try again. We go on the stupid internet, and try again. We're told not to adopt it, just to get the thing out of reach of chick-eaters.

Then it just becomes too much for me. Maybe I'm living too good, that the plight of a baby cardinal can just knock me on my ass. But I tried, I tried to get it to stay on the branch, to stay in the bush, to stay on the roof, just to effing stay effing put!

But it flaps away. It can fly the way handgliders can fly... fly downward. So it fluttered from the branch, and it fluttered down from the hedges and fluttered down from the roof. I was too afraid to try to hand feed it, they can't really make it in the wild after that, and all the wildlife websites say not to do it...

And God help me, looking at the little thing, I didn't honestly think I had it in me to pull it off. And that's what's broken my heart.

All this during my freaking owl exhibit, I mean how diabolically ironic, huh?