A "Fowl" Incident

An odd thing happened to me this morning. As I was puttering around the house I kept hearing this strange noise through my open windows. It was a combination of a screeching, flapping, banging sound. I ignored it for a while, then finally went out into the backyard to investigate. There on my fence was a bird. No, not sitting there singing gaily as birds are supposed to, but dangling upside down with one leg caught between two fence boards. He was wildly flapping his wings, trying to escape but his leg was wedged in there pretty tight. I went and got a broom with a long handle thinking I could put the broom under the bird and slide him up through the crack until his leg was free. No such luck. That leg wouldn't budge and the poor bird shrieked in pain every time I tried. His leg was bloody and obviously broken. I frantically wondered how I was going to rescue this bird, then decided to call Aaron and have him take care of it. Nope , he wasn't in the area, I'd have to do it myself. He told me to go out and pull the boards apart so he could escape. The thing is, this wasn't a little tiny sparrow, it was quite a large bird. A large bird with a long sharp beak and talons that I was sure would attack me as soon as it was free. I really did not want to do this. I went inside and donned my protective armor. Aaron's big, long, thick coat. Gardening gloves. Glasses so my eyes wouldn't get pecked out. Out I went to take care of the problem. Standing there a couple feet away, I was still scared of that bird. I decide to climb over the wood fence (there is no gate on the back fence line) and pull the boards apart from that side so I would not have an angry flapping bird in my face while I did the deed. So over I went, I pulled the boards apart and the bird dropped down into the yard. It was impossible to climb back into my yard from that side of the fence so I had to walk around my block to get back home. Luckily I remembered to take off the parka and gardening gloves and throw them over the fence before someone saw me. One the way back to my house I wondered what I would do if the bird was laying in the grass with a broken leg. Who fixes wild birds with broken legs??? I was quite relieved when I discovered that the bird had managed to fly away. Thank goodness, because the thought getting ahold of that bird and taking it to a vet was just more than I could take.