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Fathers Day 2007 Essay Contest Second Prize Winner

Image of Fathers Day Contest Second Winner Our Second Place Essay was written by CJ Mouser. She wins a $50 gift voucher courtesy Pickup Flowers. Congratulations to CJ and thank you to all who took the time to share with us their wonderful stories of Father's Day.

Most memorable day with my father...

By CJ Mouser

It's not every day a person finds a crane in their back yard. At 8 years old I had never seen one of these big birds up close, and I wondered briefly what he was doing in our little back yard. Then I ran to get Daddy, who was hiding behind his Sunday paper.

“Daddy ... there's a great big old bird in the yard.”
“Oh, yeah?” He didn't look up.
“Daddy!” I shook his arm. “There's a ...”
“I know ... a big old bird in the yard. How big?”
“Well, he's a tall as I am,” I said.

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“Oh, he is not,” Daddy argued, and then ... “Is he really?”
“Yeah,” I replied, and then grinned, “come see him.”

Daddy followed me to the back yard.

“I'll be,” he said, when he saw the crane, “wonder what he's doing here? Oh, I see -- he has a broken leg! See how that one leg is all crooked?” He pointed, and I nodded. “Let me get a few things, and we'll see if we can't help him.”

“What kind is it, Jim?” My mother asked, as Daddy caught and carefully penned the bird's wings to his sides and commenced to carry him into the garage, or “the clinic.”

“I think he's a Texas Whooping Crane,” Daddy replied.

About that time, the bird got his wings free and then there was no doubt in any of our minds that he was a Whooping Crane, because he proceeded to whoop my dad with those big old wings until they were both out of breath. He whooped him from one side of the porch to the other and then whooped him all the way to the garage.

“Well, he's a whoopin' crane all right,” I announced, “he sure whooped you!”

Mom fetched a pillow case and Daddy put it over the bird's head, which served to calm him long enough that Daddy could work on his leg.

Daddy had to park in the yard until he felt the bird had healed enough to remove the dressing and set him free, which he did one afternoon a few weeks later. With two healthy legs the bird was able to get the running start that he needed to fly on to wherever it was that he normally hung out, and we watched with awe as he did just that, the sound of his great wings whapping against his sides as he went airborne.

Over the years my father turned loose a total of four kids, and watched them fly, and to this day, being his eldest daughter, if I find an animal that is in trouble and I think there's anyway I can help it, I will try. I like to think it was the influence of that long-ago day when my father turned impromptu veterinarian, and mended a broken-legged crane, leaving me with a memory that I will always treasure.

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