The Baby Mockingbird

Saturday was a dreary day. Not long after I got up, I was out in the garage and heard a loud bird ruckus and wondered what was going on. I opened the door and saw two Mockingbirds going crazy screeching at Barney who was hunkered down looking frightened. I ran out to shoo them off, but they didn't go far. I figured Barney was trying to get from the backyard into the garage to eat and the birds were just being asses. He came into the garage with me and I shut the door and didn't think too much about it but mentioned to My Sweetie that some mockingbirds were bothering Barney and we were both all, "Poor Barney, he has the hardest time."
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After lunch I went into the backyard to water the flowers and realized those birds were still going at it. I came inside for my Nerf gun. I went out and fired some shots of little Nerf pellets at the birds but they never went far (and of course I didn't hit them.) I continued with watering the flowers and then saw one of the mockingbirds actually dive bomb Barney. Then I was getting irritated. I grabbed my Nerf gun and went after them in ernest but they were smart. They either stayed on the fence or just inside my neighbor's yard. These are the neighbors whose cat attacked Barney last year and when I demanded money, it didn't go over well and so I knew I couldn't fire into their yard, or I'd never get my Nerf "bullets" back.
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So now I was thinking "prevention." I called Barney to come over onto the patio with me so they couldn't bother him. Barney wanted to go back to the side of the house which was the bird stronghold, so then I got irritated thinking maybe he was hungry and couldn't get to his food. I walked with him along the side to the garage door, but he didn't follow me. He was more interested in a bush. I thought "Why does he want to hang out here to look at a bush when it's obvious it's making these birds crazy?"
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Then something clicked in my tiny slow brain and I went over to inspect the bush and found this little guy:

Suddenly everything made sense. I grabbed Barney and went back to the patio and decided to keep him over there until the parent birds could do something about the baby bird. Twice, over time, one of the big mockingbirds would check back with us to see where Barney was, but the fuss died down and now Barney was busy in the grass on the far side of the backyard. It got quiet and I figured it was all well. And I like a happy ending. Since Barney was preoccupied, I decided to go check things out. I slipped over there and didn't see Ma or Pa and was about to go check the bush when I saw the baby hopping toward the gate to the front yard. There's plenty of room under the gate, so I figured he'd make it out just fine.
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I opened the back door and called for My Sweetie to go check baby bird's progress while I kept and eye on Barney. Sweetie opened the gate and gently helped Baby out into the front yard. At this point I thought it was all over and the parents could take care of their tot without worrying about Barney and went about my day. I took my shower and started getting ready and then realized I was still thinking about the bird. Barney was asleep on the deck and all was quiet. I went out the front door and walked over to look for the little guy and found him under a bush. But where were the parents?
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I kept going out to the garage where I could keep an eye on him and not scare the other birds away and kept watch through the garage door window:

I stood there for a long time listening to the radio, sipping beers and watching all the birds and lizards in the neighborhood. Finally, just to the left of the Crape Myrtle that you can see part of on the left of the above picture, I saw a mockingbird on my neighbor's mailbox:

That bird was one of the parents and flew over to the baby and looked like it was feeding it. I was really happy, because I thought they had lost each other. I continued my watch and saw the bird come back again. I felt like it was all going to be good. As we were leaving to go out, I took one more picture of the bird:

We went out to eat and then to the grocery store and when we returned I watched the driveway carefully as we turned in so we wouldn't run over the tiny bird. I saw something by my truck tire under my truck. After we parked I jumped out and checked with the little flashlight that hangs on my purse and that was him. I figured he'd sleep through the night and his parents would come back in the morning to take care of everything.

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When I woke up on Sunday, My Sweetie told me that he had gone out to check early that morning and the little baby mockingbird had died. I was so sad. I like a happy ending and there was not one. Poor little bird.