♥~♥~♥~Joanna~♥~♥~♥ -- The magpie who died of a broken heart.

Joanna is a magpie buried in a prairie field. I wish I could have made a cross for her grave but I was to broken hearted and we were on a trip. Let me start from the beginning. For vacation this year we went to see my step dads relatives in Saskatchewan. We traveled with 7 flickers and believe me our car smelt like a chicken coop! When we were on our way back we spent the a few days at Dons sister Ruby’s house. One after noon I was talking to Ruby about my birds and she mentioned that there was a magpie nest in the back yard. I went to see it and wished I could raise a magpie. She told me one fell out of the nest already and I asked what happened to it. I was almost in tears when she told me she had grabbed it by the neck and threw it across the yard. Of course it died but I knew the babies in the nest were in danger. There were dogs and cats around the house and of course their worst enemy, people. I told my mum and we decided the best thing to do is take the babies home and raise them. Ruby was glad that we’d do that cause she did not like magpies, to noisy she said. We got a ladder and I climbed up to the top of the ladder and then climbed up though a lot of branches to the nest. I looked in and saw 3 frightened fledgling magpies. One jumped out of the nest and hopped along a branch then another on followed. They were out my reach so I got the one still in the nest. It wiggled and bit but I held on tight. I climbed down and set her in my waiting backpack. One magpie lost her balance and fell off the branch I ran and caught her and put her with her sister in the pack. Then we got a stick and gently nudged the other one off the branch. It fluttered to the ground and I picked her up and set her with the other two. We left later that day and I spent the time in the car getting to know them. I named them Tanya, Emily, and Joanna. Tanya and Emily were quite shy but Joanna and me became close friends. Joanna was the oldest of the sisters and loved her younger sisters so much. I learned a lot from her loving and caring example. We spent the day and night at Dons brothers house in a small neighbourhood. I use to live there so I knew my way around quite good. Me and Joanna went for long walks together and she’d sit on my shoulder like a queen. One thing I really admired her for was how she cared for her two younger sisters. After the walk I’d walk over to the backpack and Joanna would hop down my arm to my hand which meant she wanted down. I’d set her one the ground near the back pack and right away she’d hop in the partly open backpack and chirp a bit to her siblings then hop out and back up my arm. If the walk was to long she’d get worried and chirp worried little chirps till I started back to the house. Joanna was so special to me. We finally left and started back home again. That day was one of the worst days of my life. We got to Saskatoon and mum wanted to stop at a store just to look around. It was a hot day and I wanted to stay with my babies but Don told me I should go in with my mum for some weird reason. I was reluctant to go but finally went but told him to make sure my birds were ok and I’d be out soon to feed them. After about 20 minutes I went to the car to feed them and I was horrified at what I saw. All my magpies were hot and couldn’t even stand! I yelled to Don to get me some water and I took my babies out and laid them on the grass. I cooled them off with water and saved them all…but Tanya. I had to try to forget about Tanya for a little while and work on saving Joanna and Emily. Finally Emily could walk a bit but my dear Joanna was still weak and hot. After cooling her down we got in the car and I did some treatments on her. She soon was a little bit better and I was sure she’d live. After about a hour she looked around and saw Emily but not Tanya. She struggled to get by the backpack but I held her back not wanting her to realize the truth. I tried not to cry in front of Joanna although I was heartbroken. I hugged her and tried to comfort her then I could tell she knew about Tanya. Her head went down and she started to get worse again. I tried my best to save my little baby and even took her into a animal clinic but they were to busy for me and I had to wait for hours and then they told me the vet was busy. I left and tried to feed her but she wasn’t hungry. I watched and my sweet little Joanna laid her little head down and died of a broken heart. She was the best big sister I have ever seen or will see.

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