In case anyone is interested, I stuffed a starling yesterday. I feel I should clarify that I did not stuff it well. I didn’t put enough cotton inside it, I tied its wings too far apart, I pulled the skin down its legs too far, and I dumped so much sawdust and water on the poor thing while I was working that its shiny plumage looked very much the worse for wear by the time I was done. But to cut a long story short (I took notes while I was watching more expert hands and counted more than three dozen distinct steps), I started out with an ordinary* dead bird in my hands, and ended up with a somewhat mauled and bedraggled-looking stuffed skin. Getting through this process with a series of tiny birds like warblers and tanagers (much fiddlier and more tricky) took the two other volunteers, both of whom have spent a day or two a week for the past two and a half years doing this and are very meticulous and practiced, about 45 minutes per bird.

It took me a full three and a half hours, with some assistance. I was a little sweaty and faint by the end, to tell you the truth, not from the gore (it is a little gory) but the concentration and exertion. Even though it didn’t turn out very well, I’m glad I tried preparing my own skin on my first day. Working on it was one of those things that lies very much outside my natural set of talents, and resulted in a kind of focus I very rarely experience. If you’d like to know more, ask me next time you talk to me. I figure some of you might not want to hear about this in much more detail than that.

Anyway, besides that, I’m currently preoccupied by the fact that we’ve started fostering, because we decided we weren’t ready to commit to owning a cat right now. Our first foster is a rescued street kitty who turned out to be the sweetest creature on the face of the earth. See?

(Email me if you live in the Chicago area and are interested in adopting an awesome, healthy, friendly cat.)

*I shouldn’t say ordinary; it was a very beautiful starling. Much more beautiful before I got my hands on it, but oh well. I’ll improve.