This is my second and final contribution to the Random Acts of Kindness blogfest sponsored by Wayman Publishing. Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my first story. It has been amazing to read your stories as well. There are so many good people in this world and I'm grateful to Elisa for coming up with this brilliant idea for a blogfest. It has created a balance in my life after all the very bad news coming to me via TV from Oregon, to Oklahoma, to Sweden even, to the Middle East and around the world.
Please click on this image in my sidebar for more information on this blogfest.
The random acts of kindness toward both animals and people that my friend Rachael has performed throughout her life must count in the hundreds, if not more. In the six years I have known her, she has been incredibly kind to me, and she has rescued several animals as they randomly crossed her path, including a dumped pet California tortoise, a bearded dragon, a squirrel and, well you get the picture.
While Rachael worked part-time at a wildlife refuge outside Los Angeles, a call came in that an injured hawk was down in a large shopping center nearby. Since the employees were not allowed to go out on actual rescue missions, Rachael noted the place where the hawk was last seen. Several hours later, after work, she couldn't just leave the hawk to its fate. It would either be run over by a car, caught by a dog, or by a coyote in the night, so she drove over to the shopping center.
Once there, Rachael walked around and asked people if they had seen the bird. This was one of those really huge centers with big box stores, like Costco and Walmart, but no one had seen the hawk. Something told Rachael not to give up, so as dusk turned to darkness, she began to pray. She prayed she would be able to find the bird and to help it. Suddenly, there it was, right in front of her, a large hawk, badly injured. She managed to get the bird to her car where she had a carrier she keeps for situations like this. Once there, she got a young man to help her get the carrier out so she could place the hawk in it.
Rachael drove back to the wildlife refuge and let someone in charge know the bird was there. The following morning the vet checked the hawk and determined it was too badly injured and could not be saved. While this was a sad ending to Rachael's efforts to save the bird, she was still glad she found him so that the ending of his life was humane and not painful.
Then, Rachael told me, the hawk's mate called a sad and haunting call from a nearby tree. She had watched over him all this time while he dragged himself around the shopping center, badly injured. And she knew they would not see each other again, so she called her sad farewell as Rachael carried him away.
Rachael with Orion, the Great Horned Owl
