GOOD DEEDS

My son took a ride on his bike yesterday and called me from the park because he'd found a young morning dove with a broken wing unable to fly. I went and got his bike so he could carry the bird in his hands to our place.

He loves birds and wants to work with them when he grows up, and said he knew, and seemed to, how you carry a bird so they don't panic and you don't hurt them. He cared for it overnight and we brought it to a wildlife refuge in "The Great Swamp" up on the mountains Northwest of where we live.

There's a bird sanctuary there. On the way in the car he cooed to it in the cardboard box he'd put the bird in and when the bird seemed to get restless at one point he opened the top and looked at the bird with "relaxed eyes" because, he said, he'd learned that it will calm a bird down if you look into their eyes that way. And it did.

He gets most of his information from the internet and science shows on cable TV. I'm impressed. And when we got to the bird rescue place, they confirmed it was a young morning dove and that the wing was broken. My son said he saw some feathers missing on the broken wing and thought it must have been attacked, so the woman working there said they'd administer antibiotics just in case.

I hope they let us know how it turns out. She said it may not be able to fly again but they can give it a comfortable life despite that.

Thank God for all the goodness in the world, including, in this case, in thirteen-year-old boy.