Dr. Jeremy Doolittle

For Christmas I had a beautiful red hydrangea wreath up on the front door. I liked it so much (and it was big and a pain to store away) that I decided to leave it up on the door through the winter after Christmas had passed. Apparently, I'm not the only one that liked it...

We were leaving to go to dinner one night and when J opened the front door, a bird flew right into the house! Seems it had decided to build a nest in my hydrangea wreath and when we opened the door we startled it into flying away (naturally). But J opened the door so quickly that it flew in the house instead. It nestled in on top of the TV, so J grabbed a broom and tried to get it to step onto the broomstick. Instead it flew across the room to stand on the floor lamp. J tried again with the broomstick. Back to the TV. Again with the broomstick. Back to the lamp. Again with the broomstick - and this time it worked! J just pushed the broomstick gently against our little visitor's chest and she stepped right up onto the broomstick and Jeremy let her out the front door. While all this was happening I was running interference trying to keep the dog and the cat out of the living room.

We thought it was a cute story, but a total fluke. Just a week later she flew in again. She and J danced the same little dance all over again. Except this time, when he stepped out onto the front porch she didn't want to fly away. He offered her his arm and she hopped right on! So I grabbed the camera a took a couple of shots. She was missing her right eye, so I think that's why she miscalculated and ended up inside the house twice.

I hated to take her prospective home away from her, but I took down the wreath after her second visit to the living room. I'd rather force her to find a new nesting spot that to let her become a snack for Grace the cat. Who spent the next week or so licking her lips at the front door every time it was opened...