The funeral
Once every so often one can find a dead animal aside of the road or in the grass. They can be hit by traffic or if a bird, fly against a window of a vehicle or a building. At other times they are possibly caught by a cat or simply they were sick or just plain old.
Today my sweet dog peed on my daughter’s beautiful carpet that I had bought for her bedroom. No, don’t worry my dog is fine. But in order to get it cleaned and to make sure there would be no smell or stains left, I went to the store to get baking soda and cleaning vinegar. On my way to the store, I found a dead magpie laying in the middle of a grassy field. I like magpies. I see them a lot in my neighborhood and I usually have a pair visiting me on my balcony sometimes. I looked around to see if I saw its spouse somewhere but No other birds nearby to be heard or spotted.
I pondered about the dead magpie wondering what had caused his death as I continued my walk to the store. I felt bad for its partner because I know magpies usually live in pairs. On my way back home after I had all my groceries I was nearing the place where the dead magpie was laying in the grass again. As I came closer though I saw immediately it wasn’t alone anymore, there were two other smaller magpies gathering around it and when I looked around I saw a third on the roof of a building nearby making loud sounds, seemingly to alert all the other birds of the passing of one of their kind.
I kinda wished I had my phone with me but I had forgotten it at home because I was a little bit in a rush when I left, so I couldn’t take a picture or a video of the gathering. I realized I was the witness of a magpie funeral. I had heard of it before and read about it but never experienced it myself. “Rest well dear magpie,” I worded voiceless in my mind. ” You will be missed.” And I was sure of that last looking at how the other magpies gathered around it. I noticed one brought some grass to the bird and another pecked it gently.
A biker came near the other direction and startled the birds and they flew up to land in a tree not far. I took the chance to pass the place of mourning myself too so I wouldn’t startle the birds later on myself to go home. After I had passed I looked back at the ground again and the other birds already were back at its side. I saw more birds on another roof nearby. I assume they came to attend the funeral just as well.
I am grateful to have witnessed such respect they show their dead family member and for a few brief moments, I mourned with them. I thanked them and then went home with my groceries since that carpet wasn’t going to clean itself.
