Mandy Jeanne (Continued)

Jeanne and I had read the story. "Puppies for Sale" in the first of many
Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

Briefly, it is the story of a little boy who wanted to buy a puppy at a local pet store. The puppy which he wanted to buy was born without a hip joint and could not run and play like his brothers and sisters. After the pet store owner had given the boy many reasons why the boy should not buy the "defective" puppy, the little boy sat down in a chair. Pulling up his pants leg to reveal a badly twisted leg which was enclosed in a heavy metal leg brace, and looking at the pet store owner, square in the eye,  the little boy said that the little boy himself could not run as fast as the other children and that the puppy would need someone who would understand.

This story is a constant reminded as to why we have traveled and continue to travel such long distances to buy and rescue God's little creatures and to take them home to love thenand to care for them. Jeanne and I believe deep in our hearts that this is our purpose in life, and so it may be. As we are able to rescue helpless baby birds, we also have gained an insight into how much our Heavenly Father loves us and all of His children, many of whom we also care for as well.

We told this touching story to the Bakers and then told them that we would buy, at full price, each and every bird that they could not sell, if they would just give us at least 24 hours advance notice. "But 'Please,'" we told them, "please do not throw any more of these helpless little birds to the cats!"

This is how we came to buy Mandy Jeanne, who became our cutest and sweetest little bird. I think that Jeanne named her "Mandy Jeanne," after one of
her favorite songs, "Mandy" by Barry Manilow and "Jeanne," which is, of course, Jeanne's name.

We believe that the mother bird had sat too hard on Mandy Jeanne was in the nest box, before Mandy Jeanne hatched, and as a result, Mandy Jeanne had two spraddled legs. We took her to Dr. Bill McGehee, who wrapped her legs around a piece of styrofoam and taped her legs with tape, so that her legs could be straightened. But Mandy Jeanne fooled us! She would turn on her side, and with her beak, she would chew through the tape until she had freed her legs, and then off she went, as happy as a lark! Jeanne and I soon discovered that we had no right to make Mandy Jeanne miserable, so we finally just gave up and let Mandy Jeanne to her own devices!

I would put her on my computer keyboard, and she would run up and down my keyboard and peck at the keys. When she got tired, I would put her in my shirt pocket, and she would go to sleep. Eventually, she would awaken, and I would see her head sticking up out of my shirt pocker while she surveyed her surroundings. She never attempted to climb out of my shirt pocket, probably because she could hear my heart beat, which reminded her of her mother's heart beat, while she was in the egg and after she hatched. Early in our relationship, I nicknamed her "Pocket-Keet," which quickly became,"The Keet".

One Saturday, I took her with me to the post office to mail some letters. I put a letter on the electonic scale, and then another, and then another, then "The Keet" and then yet another letter. She weighed 5/8ths of an ounce, and 5/8th of an ounce is what she weighd until a few months before she died. she finally weighed in at a full ounce.

She never had a mate, because of her spraddled legs, she could not bear the weight of a male on her back. She died on 6/25/1999. Jeanne and I greived for weeks because of her death, and even now we remember her fondly and treasure her memory in our hearts, even after 10 years.

Written 12/09/2009.

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