Saving an American Coot

Friday morning when Tiger and I were at the park, we noticed the dogs paying a lot of attention to something in the bushes. The dogpark is up near a wildlife refuge and we often see coyotes, bunnies and other animals, so I thought they were just smelling a spot where the animals go under the fence.

But when they wouldn't come when I called them, I went to investigate and noticed an injured bird. Well, if any of you know Tiger, there's one thing you know about her is her love of animals. She's like Ellen that way.

We called the Audubon Society and they said if we could bring it in, they would take a look at it. So we took the coat off our old dog and gently wrapped it around the bird and picked it up. It looked like some kind of duck. She struggled a bit, but settled into Tay's arms.

It took us about ten minutes to walk back to the car and another 30 to make it to the Audubon Society.

The volunteer there took the bird and told us it was an American Coot and she had a badly injured foot. The veterinarian was going to be in later in the day and they would try to help the coot.  We haven't heard yet, but we hope she is safe, warm and healing up for a release this Spring when the pond thaws.