Sad Day

Normally I have a photo, but not today. I was in the middle of a fun post about Florida, but I will have to finish it tomorrow. Today I am super sad, and I can't write about something happy. A beautiful hummingbird got trapped in our garage, not sure when but probably this morning when I left for the chiropractor. But I discovered it when I let the cats out there to play awhile ago. Of course they spotted it right away, and cornered it. I made them go back inside the house and I opened up the garage, hoping the hummingbird would find its way out. I caught it twice, with a towel, but it got away. It kept flying up towards the ceiling, and not out the door, and every time I approached it squeaked in panic and fluttered about. It finally rested on the garage door railing, but I could see it was completely exhausted, it was barely hanging on there. I went back into the house for awhile, leaving the garage open, hoping it would find its way out. When I went back out there, I didn't see the bird, and of course I looked around everywhere thinking that it may have been so tired it fell. I scoured all over the tool benches, all over the floor, I looked everywhere. No bird. Finally, I closed up the garage and let the cats back out. Moments later Spider came back in with the bird, dead, and put it at my feet. I was devastated, I haven't stopped crying since, I even called James and he wanted to know if he needed to come home to me. He gave me the "honey, that's just part of life" speech, but it didn't help. I held it for a long time like a little kid, hoping it was just tired, hoping it would wake up, but no such luck. I put it away in a box, and I will have James bury it in the backyard, I can't imagine just throwing it away. My heart is broken today, I can barely function right now, I have such a soft spot in my heart for all animals, and I can't help but to think it's my fault that this beautiful little bird is dead. I always get overly upset about animals being hurt or dying, I can't even watch half the shows on Animal Planet because of it. I even have to cover my eyes when there is a dead animal on the side of the road, because I will cry if I see it. So, I am overly sensitive, and this little hummingbird has turned me into a quivering mass. Perhaps if I had left it alone to begin with, instead of trying to catch it and take it outside. I feel like I chased it to death. I don't believe the cats killed it, I think it simply died of terror and exhaustion. I hope it wasn't the little hummingbird that comes to my feeder every day, I would be crushed to not see it again. I will return tomorrow to post.