u/crithagraleucopygia

On Monday night I came home with another gull. At first I suspected a car collision but the truth is much darker than expected. She’s been SHOT TO THE HEAD most likely with BB gun and has a steel pellet inside her skull. The pellet went through her left eye socket, then through most of her skull and became stuck under her right eye. I don’t even know how she’s still alive and how her bones and brain are intact. One or two millimeters closer or further and she’d be dead.

However this doesn’t make things easier. Due to the swelling of all her soft tissues making pressure on her optic nerves she’s completely blind. She doesn’t know where she is, what’s happening with her, how to get any food and where her water is. I’m doing what I can to ease her pain and make her comfortable. Today is day 5 and she’s actually improving. She learned to drink on her own, reacts to my voice knowing she’s gonna get something good when I’m near. She’s a master of listening to every sound and learning what it means for her. She’s preening, jumping, acting better and better every single day. She’s not gonna give up, and neither will I.

It’s still too early to know whether she’ll be blind or not. Left eye will probably be non functioning, what we’re fighting for is her right eye. Actually I think she started to react to the bright light by blinking that right eye as if she had photophobia. It’s a common thing after head injuries, and in her case this would be an excellent news as this would mean she’s able to detect the light. But - it’s very early. It takes weeks to see how far the damage has been done. I don’t expect full recovery but at least 20-30% of vision would make a huge difference.

And what’s with this cunt who did this to her? A local police station stepped in and took the case. I spoke as a witness and hope they’re gonna do something to catch him. Who knows how many other birds he killed. As usual, he probably hoped that no one would find Marie alive - not this time ‘sweetie’!

what y’all doing at 2am on Monday morning? are ya sleeping? because I think sleeping is for losers! right now I’m like 50 kms away from home taking this girl on a train with me. as always - the finder called everyone - authorities, the ‘rehab center’(yeah, this one I’d love to put on fire for their incompetence), even the police. as always - ‘we can’t do anything’. and as always - ‘I can’t contain the bird because of [a million weird reasons]’. so, who needed to do the job? me.

straight after catching her I heard a few foxes laughing and screaming very near the place the gull crashed. I was like 10 minutes before them. if I was here later, she’d have ended up in their stomachs and I’d have found just a pile of feathers left. knowing that - I felt surreal now.

at first glance - left eye is dislocated, she’ll almost certainly be blind in that eye. right eye is dislocated as well but not as bad, there’s a chance she’ll not end up completely blind. there’s a massive cranial swelling and also she shows signs of a heavy concussion. this is gonna be a hard night for both of us.

nevertheless - right now I’m reaching the train station with her so bye for the moment - I’ll make an update when things get clearer. in the meantime I have a challenge for you - name her for me! it’s a female so something gentle please!

I almost never say anything cute about my birds - I don’t find it wise for them and rather treat them with respect - but this time it’s impossible not to. Berty learned to respond to my own voice and now we just talk to each other like two gulls having a conversation. And not only that. I’m not the only one who initiates mutual calling. He started coming to me, calling me and waiting for me to answer him! Every time I just wanna grab and hug him as strong as possible and it’s extremely hard not to do that. But it’s definitely better not to make him stressed and my fingers bleeding!