A Seabird to Comfort

My husband, Casey and I got home around noon on Sunday after spending Thanksgiving with his family in Napa.  After unpacking the car I was off to go find Autumn.  I wasn't long after I had Autumn in her stall that Cindy wandered up to the barn with Syria, Autumn's best friend horse.  "Do you want to go to the beach?".  Forty five minutes later we were on their backs riding next to the surf.  The wind was still, the waves clapped and the sky was washed in a water color of quiet clouds. 
We strolled along in a peaceful daze until something caught our eyes.  Autumn and I noticed a little tiny form not to far away.  We walked closer to inspect and there before us was some type of seabird.  He was black and duck shaped, with a long point tipped bill, with a white belly and blue feet.  He looked up at us and of course, I started to worry out a plan for him.  Autumn stretched out her neck and sniffed to him while Syria had a "I'm not getting close to that thing!" look on her face.  Cindy and I decided that we would ride a bit more and if he was still there on our way back that we would take him home. 
Well, the rest of the ride for me was making a game plan for the little guy.  I could get off Autumn, carry him back to the parking lot, put him in a bucket for the ride home, tuck Autumn in her stall, bring him home, feed him canned tuna, put him in a dog crate with hay...wait...wait...no. A towel.  Would I need a heating lamp?  How would I feed him with that pointy bill?  What time in the morning does that wildlife rescue center open anyway?  With all that chitter chatter in my head I didn't realize that we were already standing back over him.  I got off Autumn and walked up to the little guy unsure what to do.  I looked at Autumn and she was giving me the same eye contact that she gives me when she wants a cookie except she followed it up by looking at the little seabird then back to me.  She repeated this a few times before I got the message.  I bent down and scooped up the little guy without any fight.  He was very weak but not too weak to have diarrhea all over my coat that I wrapped him in (no good deed goes unpunished as my good friend Karen likes to say). 
As we headed back to the trailer Autumn could not keep her eyes off of him.  She would sniff him gently on one side of me and then she would cross behind me and then sniff him gently on the other side.  She did this for our entire 30 minute walk back to the trailer. 


Autumn comforting the weak little seabird.

 By the time we made it back to the trailer the poor little seabird seemed close to flying up to heaven.  I decided that maybe it would be more peaceful for him to be by his home for the last part of his journey instead of my dog crate.   I found a little spot close to the dunes and promised that I would check on him on my work break the next day.  We all wished him well and hoped for the best. 
The next day on my lunch break I drove to the beach and scrambled as fast as I could through the sand to the spot where I had left him.  I found him there but he was gone.  I felt bad that maybe I should have taken him home and tried harder but the whispering wind and the song of the sea's waves somehow made me feel that it was better for him to be where he was laid. 

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