AN IDEA FOR THE BIRDS

Duck was talking to Bear, Snowman and Dog, who had gathered around for a conference.

“Yes, and if the bird can’t fly away, it will freeze, or might get eaten by Chelsea, that Big Dog Who Goes Outside”, replied Bear.

“Well what can we do?” asked Dog, climbing up onto the conference table. “We can’t very well wave our hands around all day and night to warn them away.”

“I know”, said Snowman, “We could close the blinds, and that way the birds will know there’s a window there.”

“No, that won’t work”, said Duck. “The people who live here like to watch the snow and the trees outside. They’ll just open the blinds up again.”

They all sat thinking. Suddenly Bear had an idea. “I know. We can get those little silhouettes of birds that Cassandra, the little girl who visits here, plays with, and put them up on the window so the birds will know there’s a window there, and keep away.”

“What’s a silhouette?” asked Dog. “And where are they kept?”

“The silhouettes are over there on the window sill, of course, silly”, said Snowman, delighted with his play on words.

“But how will we get them up there?” asked Duck. “I’m the only one here who can fly, but I can’t stop in mid-air to put them on the window. I’m not a hummingbird.”

They all thought again. Finally Bear said “Well, there’s some string over there. What if Duck flew up and perched on the top of the blinds and lowered the string down so one of us could climb up and put the silhouettes on the window?”

“Duck isn’t strong enough to hold our weight when we climbed up”, said Bear, “but Dog is. Suppose Duck flew Dog up to the top of the blinds to hold the string while one of us climbed up, and then carried Dog down again when the silhouettes were all up?”

“I’ll climb up”, volunteered Snowman. “I’m the lightest.”

The plan worked, and two hours later the bird silhouettes were all up on the window.

“Very nice work, team”, said Dog. “It just shows what we can do when we all work together.”

“We’re a bunch of bird-brains for sure”, said Duck.