thanks for sharing your wonderful animal stories! You do it beautifully. This, especially, was a perfect example of the combination of description and personal narrative, which you mentioned in your recent ReadingAnimals comments:

“Of course, what struck me most strongly was Heartbeat’s evident empathy for an injured stranger. Here was a very young bird who had known only grief himself until relatively recently but still had room in his heart to see and respond to the pain of somebody else. I still choke up when I think back on that moment when he stood there wondering what to do.”

Hmmm. Interchicken witnessing?

I only hope that more people learn to listen to the voice that Heartbeat apparently heard that day - the one that says “I see and I want to help.”

Thanks for the mention for ReadingAnimals, Kerulos and IAATR, too. Always nice to get such a personal introduction.