2018 Garden Post #3

Nathan had two tips for strawberries.  The first was to lay a bed of a straw on the ground so they do not rot.  Hence the name.  The second was a net.  The net will protect you from rodents he said, but you might catch a bird.  He specifically said bird.

I was holding the garden hose and came around the side of the house to the Alley Garden where the strawberry beds are.  Tangled in the plastic netting was a mourning dove.  She was alive.  I ran inside to get a pair of scissors.

That netting is awful shit.  Along the way I needed both hands to untangle her head and I put the scissors at my side and THE SCISSORS GOT TANGLED IN THE NETS and I lost my cool untangling them and she started flapping again and flapped herself into more trouble.

Eventually the scissors came free and I cut the bird free.  She had a netting shaped rectangle on her shoulder the perimeter of which was marked with a thin red line of blood.  After I freed her she sat motionless in the strawberry patch.

I went back to the business of watering the gardens but my soul was burdened and I returned to the alley to check on her.  She was just sitting there in the sun.

I went inside and found my phone and called the animal whoevers but they did not answer.  I went back to the alley and she was still just sitting there in the sun.  I nudged her gently with the handle of the scissors, I wanted her to climb on for a short ride to the shade.  At that point she flew away like nothing had happened but I've been sad about it for days.