Adding videos to blogs is still kinda touch and go... This was a video put together by a close friend some 2 years ago. One of my roles at the temple....saving birds. Sadly the "nok kapoot" baby only survived for 2 months. Really sad because that baby had the best of personalities I'd seen to date. Put it down to my total inexperience raising meat-eating birds.
The 2nd bird, the kauwow chick is non other than Cha, who is still with me 2 years down the road.
She was found by Achan Long, somewhere in the fields of the temple grounds. She was way too small and had a white mouth, and frankly I didn't think that she would survive at the time. Still I gave it my best shot and today she's a strong healthy lady. Unfortunately she has a balance problem that makes it impossible to release her. It's taken 2 years for her to become a reasonably tame bird. Probably, because of the kauwow's long life span, [some 10 years, I hear] they are very slow to mature. Now as I raise "Dum" the newest of the kauwows, Cha wants to know what all the noise is about! She comes right up to the top of her cage and eyeballs me and the noisy baby kauwow, watching all the while as junior gets fed.
She even called when the baby got hungry!!! Unbelievable for a bird who normally dumps their offspring on minor birds to raise!
There is another bird in my care that has never had it's photo published. She also arrived as a chick some 2 years ago. Her name is Peh, and she too is a kauwow female. She was not as lucky as the others, because when she fell from the tree, she was automatically a handicapped bird. Her one leg is not broken, but it feels like it's been dislocated by her fall. Handicapped birds, like handicapped humans are incapable of looking after themselves. Handicapped birds also vertually live in their shit. This means that every few days, Peh gets a bath with luke warm water to remove the crusted shit from her feet and body. She is then wrapped up in a T-shirt to dry, while I change the cloth in her cage and put in fresh water and food. Also, like humans, she develops sores, similar to bedsores in humans. These wounds need to be constantly cleaned and gentian violet applied. Peh has turned into quite the personality. She would peek through the wood pane, see me and usher her greeting. She can also be extremely loud if her food is finished!!!
Call it fate if you will...I've been taught that nothing comes to you unless it is somehow connected to you.
About 3 months after Peh and Cha arrived, I had a really strange dream. In the dream I was on a modern street with parks and tall modern buildings, the kind you would find in any city. I was looking for my house. Next thing I knew, I found myself in a basement appartment living room with one wall completely covered with Buddha and monk images. A massive alter this was.
Suddenly 2 men came into the room. One had an epileptic attack and the other had a mouth full of white maggots! I gasped and said loudly, "Where am I to find the merit to cover this!!!"
Again I was on the street outside when I woke up. I looked at the clock. It was exactly midnight!
At first I couldn't think of what this strange dream meant, until a friend told me that the 2 men referred to the 2 kauwows in my care. Time revealed that Peh, the handicapped kauwow had saved my life in a previous incarnation. I was forbidden to put her down as a mercy killing. It was also made clear to me that if Peh were to die at a young age, her next incarnation would be even worse than this.
So here we are, 2 years down the line and still going strong. Guess you could almost say "Friends for Eternity"!
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