Birdnapped!

Is any animal safe from Kindsay's magnetism? Her obsession with animals is long standing. Along with babies, Kindsay will do anything when it comes to animals. She reads about them the way a person would read a novel for pleasure. She watches them on television (Animal Planet) and nothing else. She even alternates wanting them as gifts between Furreal Friends and a new baby doll. Everyone knows Kindsay would love a new pet but we do not give in because the life of the animal would be in her unsteady hands. The love she has for animals crosses into dangerous territories that her father and I cannot keep up with in supervision. We simply can't watch her every moment of the day. It's sad because she truly wants to care for an animal, and in many ways she'd be very good at it. But it's that small part of her, that part that even medication doesn't touch, that we all fear...and have good reason to.
Last week sometime, when the kids were still home on summer break and I had begun working already, Kindsay proved herself untrustworthy with another life. My mom and dad had been caring for my kids while I worked and after work I'd run errands with the boys while Kindsay stayed home alone. Again, she's fine alone. Computer games and snack food is all she is interested in. Sure she opens the door to strangers, but in my quiet little neighborhood that isn't a problem. My 'no soliciting' sign keeps 98% of the people at bay. So I'm running errands with the boys and pull into my driveway. Out bursts Kindsay, and it truly was a burst if you know Kindsay, into the garage with sheer delight she cannot contain. "Garon...Ty..I have birds in my room!" As though she forgot I would be in the car...well, who else would be driving into the garage...she looks at me and squeals in anticipation of my reaction and runs back into the house. "Birds? You have BIRDS? Where'd you get birds?" I feel like I'm in a horror film in reverse as I try to get my car turned OFF and my keys OUT of the ignition in record time. Seeing as how Kindsay has already dragged into her room 2 televisions and a microwave, I can't imagine where she was putting birds and from where in the world she got them. Sure, we used to have a parakeet because we found him sitting on our car in the driveway one day...but that's pretty unusual. Plus, we don't own a cage. But I digress....the boys run with excitement into the house...even the little girl across the street heard Kindsay's announcement and came running over and into the house to see the birds. I gather everything out of the car, realizing...we don't have birds, there aren't any birds...why am I getting worked up over this? She must've found a website with birds and is raising a family in a nest online. I take my stuff in the house, start on my housework and dinner, and my eye is catching little bits here and there that something is indeed up. The boys are whispering and moving out into the backyard with slippery moves...Kindsay has altogether disappeared. I can hear talking in the backyard, but not the running around playing kind of talk and not the typical pool banter when they swim. Finally Ty comes in with confirmation that there are birds in our backyard in Kindsay's care. In fluid storming steps I get out to the backyard to see a blue nylon crate used in children's rooms as a storage device. I approach it, and while I do the boys are filling me in. "She found them in the nest! The nest is out in the front and she killed the mommy bird! She destroyed the nest! Kindsay is going to keep them!" and so on...all the while Kindsay is not denying or admitting to anything. I look over the edge of the crate to find two bundles of feathers. Two sleeping baby birds too soon yanked from their nest by an animal stalker. They are nestled beside a small cup of what appeared to be their dinner...a pile of bread crumbs that she ripped apart in the kitchen. While I was out Kindsay found a nest in my frontyard attached to the garage. She took a chair and watched until mommy bird flew away at which point she climbed onto the chair and scooped out the two baby birds and rushed them into the house. I didn't even make an attempt to correct the situation. I immediately called Greg. "When are you coming home?" soon, he said. "OK because ..." I proceeded to tell him about Kindsay and her birdnapping. "I'm on my way." Thirty minutes later Greg was home and placed the birds back into their nest, which Kindsay did not destroy (that would've been the absolute end of her if she had destroyed the nest and killed the mom...the END...somehow.) Greg worried the mommy bird would reject them and I assured him that she wouldn't...what mom would reject her two sweet babies? Later that evening I went to the front yard where Greg was playing with the boys. "Look up there..." Greg pointed to where the garage and roof meet. There sat a large bird in a nest and she was glaring at us with an intensity I'd never seen from an animal. She must've known something was amiss when she returned...her babies were probably not right where she left them. I felt a tinge of guilt as though I had been the culprit in the Big Birdnapping of '09. Then again, I did give birth to the culprit. I think I know how the parents of convicted felons feel when faced with the victims' families...a little guilty, a little remorse, but very little surprise.