Sometime this weekend, Gilligan, the injured sea gull rescued last Sunday, is scheduled to make his first public appearance since his accident, his publicist announced this morning.
Last Sunday, Gilligan was found stuffed in a Walmart shopping cart with a broken wing and blood-stained body. Exactly what happened to him is unknown, but it appears he was feeding in the Walmart parking lot when a car hit him - nearly severing his wing - sometime around Friday. Someone scooped him up and placed him in the shopping cart until Keith and Mark found him Sunday evening. Two days later, Gilligan’s doctor had to amputate his wing.
He is at his new home recovering from the trauma. His appetite is returning. For the first time, he ate a hearty meal. He enjoyed a bowl of Friskies whitefish and tuna cat food.
After his dinner, he tried to take a bath. At first, he used the water to clean his bill and even drank some of his bath water. As the water level rose, though, he wanted out of the tub. His feathers have lost their waterproof qualities as a result of the accident and the cold water soaked through to his skin.
His caretakers, Mark and Keith, placed a portable heater on the floor a safe distance from the sheet Gilligan uses to prevent messing on the floor. They placed Gilligan on his sheet to warm him up. Gilligan promptly strolled right up to the heater and spent the next hour preening his self.
Thistle, Keith and Mark’s boxer/hound dog mix, has been very patient with Gilligan. She keeps her distance from him, but never lets an eye off of him. She lies in her bed and stares at Gilligan trying to make sense of the new invader in her home.
Her biggest concern is what Gilligan eats. Thistle knows when a can is opened, it’s her dinner time. Last night when Mark opened the can of cat food, she came running to the kitchen expecting her dinner. She watched Mark with her big, sad, brown eyes as he placed the cat food down for Gilligan.
Mark immediately opened a can of food for Thistle and then spent an hour lying with Thistle as they both watched Gilligan preen his self. It is important Thistle knows she is still top dog.
And Gilligan is adjusting to his new home. He tolerates his new caretakers, Keith and Mark. He doesn’t try to bite them although he does prefer them to keep their distance. He will sit in Mark’s lap as he watches TV, but always looks for a quick escape and reluctantly, he allows Mark to pick him up to put him to bed, although he clearly makes his protest known by trying to evade capture.
© 2007
Mark Darien
All rights reserved
Please include this copyright notice if you share this article
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment