I think I put the cart before the horse with last month’s blog on “Motivation.” I probably should’ve started with “Inspiration.” I’ll use my second book to explain how that has kept me going forward.
“Who Found Who,” which I wrote over the Fall/Winter of 2017 and published in 2018, seemed like the next right thing to write about. I was so inspired that the story practically wrote itself. I found a parrot walking on the roof of my car in May of ’17. It was an amazing lesson for me. It’s not the sort of thing one would expect to find while working in the yard. I still have “Georgie” almost six years later.
To be honest, I was terrified when I heard the squawk, so I froze in my tracks. Not to disappoint, he did it again in a few seconds. Once I spotted him, my mind was racing with questions like, “Now what do I do?” “What can I do?” and “What might he do if I approached?”
This beautiful neon green and teal ‘character’ was so charming I knew I wanted to try to help him. Here’s where the “inspiration” started to flow. It all became a capture and rescue/return mission. It involved some bread, some water and, finally, some borrowed bird seed provided by my neighbor (and his love birds).
The “capture” part of this event took me about 25 minutes. When I was finally comfortable with “him”, I put my hand up and he hopped right on! It seemed clear he wanted help from this human. By that time my other half had obliged and took out a cat carrier when I asked.
Try as I may via local community blog, posters and queries to local veterinarians, I did not find anyone who lost him or was claiming him. Next step…buy a cage to be delivered overnight. So much for the rescue/return part. From the minute he hopped onto my hand, we bonded.
This story was too good to not tell. The inspiration became a desire to write about this event and then use it as a teaching tool for any child who might find an animal, abandoned or otherwise. Storytelling is an art I’m not sure I’ve mastered yet. Halina Schafer, Author
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