A Mother's Loving Protection, A Father's Dedication: A Family Like Any Other

From the Telegraph comes the most heartwarming, beautiful story of the day. And it's a tear-jerker. "Bird brain" is an insult I despise because it implies that birds themselves are unintelligent, unthinking beings when they certainly are not. And this remarkable story tells us that we shouldn't underestimate the size of their hearts either.

Her children were in danger. And so she put herself, quite literally, between them and what threatened to harm them. Through pelting rain, through hours, through hunger, she stayed, and she protected them. And her mate did not just leave her to protect and provide for the family by herself. He did not go on about his business as usual. While she served as the physical barrier between their chicks and danger, he took care of her and their young, bringing back worms and feeding both his mate and their small family. It is not sentimentally anthropomorphic to talk about animals big or small, domesticated and captive or free, as having families, as having feelings, as expressing love and devotion. It is simply an observation of the obvious. We are not different from one another in the ways that matter. And this, my friends, is love

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Desperate to protect her young, she puffed herself up to twice her size and sat in the drainpipe to stop the tide of rain water swamping the nest. . . . She was so occupied with her task that her mate was left to feed her and their young. . . .

Said the observer who captured the image,

"She had to come up with a solution so she puffed herself up so she was twice the size of her mate and used her body as a cork to stop the water - it was absolutely amazing. "She was very dedicated, sitting there even when the rain was hammering down. Then every half an hour she would get out, dry herself off and come back. "The male was doing most of the work - feeding her and the chicks when she was sitting in the pipe. I feel so lucky to have witnessed something so rare and unique."

But though the chance to witness this family's interactions up-close may have been unusual, what the observer saw, in terms of a family acting like a family and parents protecting their young, was not rare, was not an anomaly. Whether human, cow, pig, chicken, elephant, sparrow, rat, or dog, animals have families. Animals have emotions. Animals form bonds and relationships, relationships they want to maintain, loved ones they want to be near, families they want to protect--if only we "superior" animals would more often let them. We are so very much the same. Read the remainder of the article here.