Don’t try to find the village of Nyushanik on a map . It may exist, but our village is fictional. First, there was a dog, a Golden Retriever named Nyusha. She became the ancestor of the estate. And then everything else: the house in the village, the cherry orchard, the lake, the plants… The first animal to permanently live in the village was a cat picked up on a busy road in the center of Kyiv. He was sitting on the median, getting wet in the rain, while cars were scurrying by on both sides. The cat needs to be fed, which means that we need to go at least every other day. Since we are coming anyway, we might as well get some chickens. The main manager, a longtime resident and family member, is Don Carlos, a dwarf rooster. He died of old age last year and was buried with honors. One day, a friend called me and asked if we could take a rook that she had pulled out from under the wheels of someone’s car on the road. Why not? We feed the chickens anyway, and we have pheasants. The rook would definitely fit. And then it went from there. This rook was followed by another, then a crow, then a rabbit from the pound …. A hare with a broken leg; a magpie tied to a pole at the campground; pigeons, eiders… The animals could not be kept in cages, so we had to build aviaries. The worst part was taking care of the birds of prey. We met some interesting people who have been studying wild birds for a long time and tracking their nesting. We met a volunteer and a wonderful person, Olena, who selflessly and unselfishly nurses the most hopeless ones. Now we have a “team contract”: she treats and feeds the chicks and the most problematic ones, and then gives them to us for rehabilitation or permanent residence. And then each bird decides for itself: whether to recover completely and fly away or to live with us permanently. Sometimes people call us and ask us to give them “some bird to live in their apartment, because they watched a movie, saw a crow and decided that they need it too.” Emotions are not the best advisor in this case! People simply do not realize what it means to keep a wild bird at home. And the issue is not only hygiene and cleanliness, sounds, but also the bird’s desire (note, a completely legitimate desire!) to move, to try to fly even without a wing. In general, they succumbed to persuasion once and gave us the rook. A week later, they gave it back to us. Nowadays, we rehome birds very rarely, only to trusted people. And the last thing.
We are grateful to the people who do not pass by a disaster. They pick up crippled birds on the street and give them a chance at life. And we admire people who not only call and state the fact that they have seen a crippled bird , but also take it to the clinic, provide first (sometimes second and third) aid, nurse it and only then call and ask to take it in. They also help to feed them. Of course, our possibilities are not unlimited. The cages are not rubber. My husband and I maintain our farmstead and animals with our own money. Occasionally we get help. It is not always possible to cure and save everyone. Sometimes there are just tragic cases: an epidemic brought by village sparrows. The ferret is a hunter from the neighboring forest. A hawk that got through the mesh of the enclosure to the pigeons. It is hard to live through these tragedies. However, nothing can cancel out the joy and happiness of “graduation in Nyushanykove” when you release the cured birds into the wild. For the sake of such moments, it is worth feeding, treating, caring for, empathizing with, and nursing the chicks. Sincerely, Iryna and Valeriy.
