The morning R & N, two of my dear friends were leaving for a Colorado vacation from their home in Akron Ohio they discovered an injured vulture in their yard. With no time to spare they called a third dear friend, a retired landscape architect and animal rescuer extraordinaire who promised to head right over, capture the bird and take it to the closest bird rescue center. C and one of her helpers managed to successfully capture the injured bird but not before it became frightened and fled under the very large deck in R & N’s yard. By crawling under the deck and throwing a blanket over its head they were able to maneuver the injured and badly frightened bird out from under the deck and into the back of their van. They then sped off to the rescue center where the injured creature could be seen by a specialist and tended to by the staff.

This is where it gets crazy. A few days later, unbeknownst to eachother, both R and C called to check on the vulture’s welfare. The woman who answered the phone at the rescue center said she was sorry but she wasn’t allowed to give out information regarding the birds’ welfare to an unauthorized person. C explained that she was the one who had rescued the bird and brought it to the clinic for treatment AND that the information she was requesting was about a VULTURE not her second cousin once removed or her Aunt Tilly! But it was to no avail. When R tried and got the same response she asked the woman to at least tell her if the bird had survived-to which the message was irritatingly repeated, she could only give that information to “authorized“ people. Seriously, is there such a thing as wild bird HIPPA?!  R & C probably would have had better luck inquiring about the welfare of Aunt Tilly!