Dead Bird

 I let Pippen outside the other day and had to let the gate up.  He likes to hang outside on our deck, all times of year.  The only problem is that he still gets a little psycho crazy excited when other dogs walk by our house.  I put up a baby gate on the deck to prevent him from running back and forth along our fence trying to eat a neighbor's dog.  As I was walking to the stairs, I noticed a dead bird on the deck.  I did what any other normal person would do, I screamed.  Just kidding.  I grabbed a bag and shovel, said a few kind words about the deceased and disposed of my fine feathered friend.  This reminded me of another dead bird story, and I thought I would share it with you.

Years ago, when N was playing baseball, I would watch the games with A.  A and the other younger siblings would play on the sidelines.  One day, the kids were looking at something on the ground.  One of the moms told them to get away from there and washed her kids hands.  I realized that the attraction was a dead bird.  The other moms were being a little strange about the whole thing.  Yelling at the kids to stay away from the bird, not letting the kids play.  The dads were just standing around staring.  You would think that one of them would do something.   Of course that didn't happen, so, I grabbed a plastic bag and picked up the bird (like I was picking up after a dog's business), tied it and tossed it into the trash.  Well, the other moms thought I was psycho for touching this dead bird.  They told me that I could get some weird disease.  I tried to explain that my hand never actually touched the bird, my hand was inside the plastic bag and I just reversed the bag once the bird was inside.  I even said, "I disposed of it safely.  The kids aren't going to go in the garbage can.  They can still run around and play."  The other moms still thought I was strange.  Here I thought I was being the adult in the situation and handling the problem, safely.  

Alas, I didn't win any friends that day, but I did give the bird a proper burial.