What happened was, the birds were on the deck eating seed I had put out. I was sitting at the dining room table sipping coffee. All of a sudden, something scared all the birds and they took to their wings. We have plexiglass siding on the front part of the deck and a female cardinal flew right into it with a huge 'whack.' She sat at the bottom of the railing in a daze. I could see her eyes blinking so I knew she was alive. I went out to make sure she was just dazed and not bleeding anywhere. They are easy to catch when they are dazed like that so I had no problem getting her in my hand. I took her over to the patio door where Addy was. She backed up at first. Holding the bird firmly, I opened the door so Addy could get a better look at it. I told her it was a bird and it was okay. She smiled and came right up to it. I didn't let her touch it and she didn't seem to want to touch it. After letting her look for a moment, I closed the door again and turned around.

Then I spied a second cardinal, a male, crouched low by the bbq. He didn't make a move as I came closer. He must have been trying to fly away, too, and crashed into the plexiglass. I had no trouble reaching down and capturing him. He squawked when I grasped him but didn't try to fly away. Back to the door I went so Addy could have a look again. She seemed fascinated, as I was. I didn't open the door this time. Mostly because my hands were full. Though I sorely wanted to try to call Amy to get the camera. Oh, well, another photo op missed.

The birds didn't want to fly away yet so I sat on the deck swing. I sat them on my shirt and they stayed there blinking their black eyes wondering what they should do next. I wondered what to do next, too. Were they that brain damaged? Was I going to have to take them in and find a cage? Were they too petrified to move? I got the female to finally sit on my finger and then I was able to get the male to sit on my hand. We sat there like that for several minutes, me, enjoying the experience, they, trying to get undazed enough to move on. And finally they did. It was the male that broke free first. He was still unbalanced and flew into the patio door, then he saw the telephone wires by the house and flew to them where he sat eyeing me. That was a good sign that he was recuperating sufficiently. The female looked at him and at me and looked around and within another minute or two she finally flew up to the wires, too. He flew away when she got there and she followed very shortly thereafter. So, they both evidently were going to be okay.