The Story of Jigger the Crow

In my previous story, I mentioned among the household pets a crow. It seems like this is a good place to tell his story. Since we lived in the country, they were plenty of space of imagination, role playing games and animals. I really can’t remember how we got Jigger, but we did.

Jigger was a typical black crow that somehow had been tamed. His original owner couldn’t keep him and somehow Mom allowed him to join the family. There was an old chicken coop in the back of the yard that had not been used by this family. I asked Mom why we did not have chickens since we had a chicken coop and she replied that they were too dirty, so the run-down building remained vacant and unused, that is until Jigger arrived. The building became Jigger’s home. Jigger was kept in the chicken coop and every day we fed him.

We asked me why Jigger couldn’t be let out of the chicken coop and she said that he had to get used to us first. After many days, Jigger was released. We thought he would fly away, but he didn’t. It was great having an outside bird that would land on your shoulder and that we could feed from our hands. It was fun watching him soar and we even interacted by him. It was like some great movie where the English Lord would have a hawk or falcon sitting on his arm. He was a great bird until Mom put the wash out on the clothes line for the first time.

As soon as Mom finished putting the clothes on the line and attaching the clothes pins to the clothes, the fun would begin. Jigger would sloop down and pulls the pins off the line. Of course when Mom returned with the next load of laundry to dry on the line, the previous load would be on the ground. Laundry day become a battle of the wits between Mom and Jigger. I am not sure now how the battle ended, but it was fun seeing Mom yelling at someone other than us children.

I remember one time when we were playing badminton. We would hit the plastic birdie across the net, or at least try to. One day we really did hit the birdie, but it wasn’t plastic, it was Jigger. As time went on, the neighboring children got to know Jigger as well. I guess they were jealous and started to find ways to get Jigger to come to their home. They would entice him with food and pretty soon he had two places he could go to get fed. But of course, a bird’s nature is to poop after eating. We had a messy porch where we fed Jigger, but we expected as such and that was part of our daily care of the bird. In other words, Mom cleaned the porch. But the neighbors did not like the down side of have a free flying bird on their hands. They start complaining that the bird was messing up their porch. Mom told them to stop feeding the crow and he would leave. But the neighboring children would not stop feeding the crow and the complaints continued but one day. The police were called and we were forced to get rid of the crow, Jigger. It wasn’t the bird’s fault, or ours but it did not matter.

Mom found a home for Jigger, but they did not keep the birds confirmed for a while like we did. Jigger escaped into the wild. Mom informed us of the sad news. She said that since Jigger had been tamed, the wild crows would see Jigger as a threat and probably kill him. We were so angry at the neighboring children in making us get rid of Jigger and blamed them for his death that we were sure to occur. After a while, life continued and Jigger became a happy memory for us. The funny thing is that soon we realized that Mom loved that crazy bird more that us.

For years, every time a flock of crows was spotted, Mom would call out “Jigger” as load as she could. If we were in the car, she would stop the car, get out of the car, and start calling for the crow. To this day, I think that every time Mom hangs laundry on the line to dry, she remembers Jigger.

The morale is that animals and birds can find a special part in your heart and live there forever. It is when you recognize a special animal or bird, they some how became a person, friend, family. They do hold a special place in our Father’s plan.