Baby Dove

Kate, my sensitive child with a big heart for God's creatures, found a baby dove in a friend's yard this week, and decided it needed to be rescued. Of course I told her that just because it was on the ground did not mean that it needed to be rescued by humans. But this one was in danger of being eaten by the friend's dogs. Kate tried to put it in a nearby bush, but it couldn't grasp the limbs with its feet and hold on, so it fell to the ground again. She couldn't find a nest anywhere, so she asked if she could bring it home and take care of it. Me being the softy that I am, said yes.

We recently found a nest in our garage, so we placed it into a box and the little fella has made himself right at home. We've done lots of research on caring for wild baby birds. Of course, we hand-raised and formula-fed our cockatiel from the time she had hardly any feathers at all!

As usual in our household, there was some argument over a name. Kate wanted to call him Charlie, and Will wanted to call him Henry (not sure what prompted the choosing of these names). Since Kate found the bird, Dad said she could choose the name. So Charlie it is. Of course, when no one is around I hear Will calling him Henry.

He seems to be a hardy little guy. Hopefully he'll be eating seed soon, and we can release him in our backyard. In our research, we found that hand-fed wild baby birds tend to hang around where they are released. So that's exciting.