So, earlier this week I was working my p/t job in the small rural town of Hartford, Alabama. While there a young woman (who was working on a remodel project next door) busted into the Fire /EMS station looking for help. " Can someone please help us with this hawk? It's injured, can't fly, and the mocking birds are attacking it."
I walked outside with her and she led me to a small garden behind the station. Sure enough, there sat the poor hawk being pelted by mockingbirds. When he saw us a approaching he quickly ran into an open nearby carport, in which he was cornered. We then dropped dropped a large open cardboard box over him. I took out my knife and cut some air holes in the box, all sides and the top.
After phone calls to the Game Warden, PD, several area Vets, and one unanswered call to some one called " The Bird Lady" ( who was supposedly permitted for Raptors), it was quickly determined that no one could / would take this wounded bird of prey under their wing.
Auburn Small Animal Clinic was contacted. They informed us that the only Vet offices that could help were in Foley, Grant and some other location, not near Hartford, Al. So it was determined that " Hudson" must be transported to Auburn.
(Yes, I named him Hudson after the" Movie Hudson Hawk.")
Luckily for Hudson, our EMS Chief is an animal lover, is very cool, and happened to be at the station that day. She ( the EMS Chief) looked at me and said, if you wanna make the trip, you have my full permission. We have enough people to cover the shift.
So after borrowing a medium size dog kennel, transferring Hudson to it, we were off. I had the cage covered with a sheet, and strapped on to the ambulance cot. Our EMS Chief informed Auburn that we were on the way. Hudosn did not put up much, if any, of a fight when I moved him from the box to the kennel. This worried my deeply that he would not survive the trip. However, about 20 miles outside of Auburn He started to screech. This made me happy, as I was worried the whole time that we would be delivering a dead hawk to AU.
When we arrived, we saw a sign that said E/R. I knew that since we were on an ambulance, that is where we needed to go. Instead of traumatizing the hawk any further, by picking up his cage and carrying it around, we rolled him, covered cage and all, into the E/R on the stretcher. To say the girls who worked at the counter were shocked, would be an understatement, LOL.
Hudson was transferred form the cage to another cardboard box, and the appropriate paperwork was filled out. As we were walking out the door, I looked around at the girls behind the desk and said, " As a Bama fan, it gives me great pleasure to give y'all The Bird!" They took it in the context it was meant and laughed.
Meet Hudson...
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