ADVENTURE ON THE HIGH SEAS (OF OUR SWIMMING POOL)

So today is plenty hot--hot enough for me to finally want to venture into the swimming pool. Not much of a swimmer, and, like Woody Allen, I don't tan;I stroke, so it takes a lot to get me down to the water at 5:30PM. Furthermore, I am all by myself here, and I recall being told not to swim alone. 

Well, I almost wasn't.

As I am anxiously walking down the pool steps into the water, I take a nervous glance over my right shoulder at what looks like a grayish mass of something sort of floating on the top step. Uh-oh.

On slightly closer examination it does not appear entirely dead. In fact, it is looking back at me, but not moving.

Now I could have turned around and decided that that was the end of today's foray into the pool, but I decided to suck it up and dig down to find my inner contadina spirit. My idea was to get the long-handled net and scoop up whoever it was and dump him over the fence.

At first this wounded ? baby owl did not want to go anywhere, but I managed to get him in and then out of the net with neither of us seeming the worse for wear. But he kept looking back at me sort of quizzically as if to say "now what ?"

Flashback to a recent blog entry where I acknowledged that we are all part of the food chain. By putting this guy in a less vulnerable place, maybe I did all I could and just needed to let nature take her course. 

And then I remembered seeing a package of bird food in our pantry. When I asked my son about it, his mood turned dark and he alluded to a failed attempt at a bird rescue. Must be genetic:he didn't know it, but I come from a long line of naively hopeful bird rescuers, usually with unhappy results. 

So I tell the bird that I will be right back, and I run into the pantry, only knocking over a small box of a thousand toothpicks, and come back with the goods. But my little friend is nowhere to be seen.

I am hoping that after a cool dip in the pool and a gentle nudge into the neighboring olive grove, he got his second wind and flew off to greener pastures. 

As for the Tropical Finches Prestige 100% Pure Nature, it's going back on the pantry shelf. 

Looks like he's in jail.

Here's Look'in at you...

Baby owl and woman with iPhone

Bird Food relaxing in the afternoon sun

Tropical Finches Prestige 100% Pure Nature with Beach Chair