Margo and the Wild Birds - Wat Yai, Ayutthaya, Thailand

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"! 

A Friend from the Past.

Exactly a year after having been ordained, I met 2 extraodinary birds, both connected to me from a past life.

During the first year of being a nun, various birds were brought to me, usually chicks that had fallen out of their nest, for further nurturing until they were ready to be set free. Clearly, although I had left the horse and elephant world behind, animals would be and probably always will  be a part of my life, regardless of where my life would lead me. From elephants to wild birds, that's quite a jump!
To date I've successfully released minor birds and kauwow birds. The kauwow is native to Thailand and
is about the size of a pigeon. They mate and kill the chicks of other birds, especially minor birds, so that these newly bereaved parents would hatch and look after the newborn kauwows. In other words kauwows are not very good parents,

Within a month of eachother, 2 kauwow female chicks were literally dumped on me.
The first one was a handicapped chick that already had feathers, but was so small, [smaller than a sparrow]
I wasn't sure whether or not I could manage this bird. She was aggressive on top of her handicap and for the first few months, I really wanted to put her down. Her left leg was useless and she must have suffered a lot just trying to get to food or water. Minors and kauwows eat pretty much the same food so I bought pellets for minors, soaked them in water to soften them up. This way the chicks could easily swallow and disgest the food. This also had the additional advantage of making sure that the chicks got enough water.

I went to the main Buddha of the temple with the request to put "Peh" the handicapped bird down...a mercy killing so to speak. It just broke my heart to see her in this condition, knowing full well that I was in no position to help her. My request was flatly turned down.

Two days later I had a wierd dream. I was on a street, a modern suburb where old and new intermingled, looking for my house. Somehow I ended up in a basement apartment, where Buddha statues covered the whole length of one hall. I saw 2 men come into the room, one had an epileptic attack, the other had a white mouth with maggots coming out of it. I took one look at these two men and stated loudly in thai, "Where am I to find the merit to help this?" Next thing I knew, I was on the street again looking for my house, when I woke up with a start. It was exactly 12 midnight. I had no idea what the dream meant. A few days later I told my friend about this dream and she said that it related to the 2 birds in my care.
Soon after that, I discovered that Peh was in fact a spirit who had helped me in one of my past lives.
I realised that that was one of the reasons I was not allowed to put her down. I also found out that if Peh were to die now as a chick, her karma in her next life would be even worse than this! It was now my turn to reciprocate the help that I had received many lives ago.

So here we are two years down the line...Peh is fat and healthy and most expressive.
She needs to be bathed every 2 or 3 days, because handicapped birds vertually live in their poop and these are very acidic. Because of this she has two wounds, one on her belly and one just above the kneecap of the paralized leg. After her bath, I apply gentian violet to the wounds, which helps to keep them dry.
She surprised me about 6 months ago. Normally she struggles during bath-time. Kauwows don't like being in the water. This time she went completely limp. I was startled. I thought maybe I was holding her too tight and she died on me. When I opened the towel that covered her head, 2 black beady little eyes stared back at me. I had started bathing her using luke-warm water and it appeared that she enjoyed it.
After her bath and applying medicine, I'd wrap her in a T-shirt till she was dry, while I changed the cloth in her cage and put in clean water and food.

She's turned into a lovely personality, shaking her head vigorously from side to side when I approach her and talk to her. This is her way of showing recognition. Both birds also emit low-key sounds when they hear my voice now....guess that means "welcome back".

When I went to Sukothai and Phitsanulok in late 2010, I needed a baby-sitter for 3 days.....not easy to find.
I finally instructed the nun that would take care of her until I returned, to cover Peh's head when she swept out the bird poop and changed the water or gave food. Peh can bite into your finger very hard when she's not pleased. What I didn't expect was that Peh would start screaming her head off whenever this stranger appeared. You had to hold your ears, the sound was that loud! When I returned from my trip I received the warmest welcome I could ever have hoped for. Plenty of head-shaking and low key noises from both birds. They were clearly pleased to see me back.

The moral of  this story is that handicapped birds are no different from handicapped people. Neither is capable of helping or taking care of themselves.

This is also a small part in the day of a Buddhist nun. Without compassion for all creatures, there is no hope.
I've received and benifited from the compassion of many people as well and this is part of my way of giving back the blessings that I have received.