Technician Tales: In Memory of Wendall

Working as an aviary technician at Bevy of Birdhomes, you might think that I would only really come across birds and people at my job. Well, experience has shown me that that isn’t the case at all! For instance, one of the facilities that I would routinely clean had a wily black-and-white kitty named Wendall living at it.

Like most cats, Wendall was pretty curious, however, he would generally leave the birds alone when I cleaned; maybe sniffing their temporary cages briefly and then laying by a window for a snooze. I thought that demonstrated an admirable amount of self-control on his part—being a cat and all—and I would always give him a good petting before I left.

 It happened one day that, rather than cleaning this facility’s aviary, I just needed to deliver an Orange Cheek finch. It was an easy enough task—until it wasn’t! As I opened the door to the aviary, intent on letting the little finch loose in it, the bird decided to turn right around and fly out into the facility instead. Oh no! I thought, grabbing my net and swinging around to see where the bird was headed. To my horror and utter disbelief, it was going straight for Wendall—it landed between his paws.

My jaw dropped and I quickly crept over to the cat who looked like he was in shock as well. After a moment, however, Wendall seemed to understand that the cageless bird was up for grabs. That’s when I yelled, “Don’t you dare!” surprising him long enough to net the bird from right under his nose. Success!

Words can’t describe how relieved I was. Not only had I managed to recapture the quick and flighty Orange Cheek, but I had also saved it from certain doom! For his part, Wendall was a good sport about it. Once I had locked the aviary up again, he walked over like usual and watched the birds through the glass, his tail and whiskers twitching!