On August 19^th, Senior German Barajas was on his way to his 4th-period class, when he noticed an injured, baby bird on the ground. He placed the bird inside of his hat and tried to keep it safe. German stated that he didn’t know why he picked up the bird, but he felt that he had to. Then after class, his friend Tanner Patrick called his girlfriend, Aubry Houston to take the bird under her wing. Aubry had previously taken care of a bird just like the one German had found that she named Jesse, who sadly passed away for unknown reasons.

After Aubry had received the bird she then decided to name it Walter. Aubry explained when she first saw the baby bird, “I wanted to take it home. I’ve found the same kind of bird as him before, so I had experience with that type of bird. The vet doesn’t take care of birds the same as bird sanctuaries.” She then stated, ” I kind of had one option which is to take care of it myself.” When Aubry first took care of Walter, he was healthy and his wings were coming in, but he didn’t have any tail feathers, which is very important to a bird’s flight abilities, but over time he grew them. Since she took care of the bird, she developed a routine every day. She woke up and purposely overfed him a bit so he wouldn’t be so hungry when she got home from school. She then fed him again at night before she went to bed. The diet he ate was full of worms and other nutritional foods.

Unfortunately, Walter passed away but Aubry’s drive to take care of these birds is remarkable. She explained, “When it was fully grown I wanted to let it go even though I’ve nursed it. I wanted to give it a full life and freedom rather than sitting in a cage all day”. Walter and Jesse both lived happy lives during the months of care they had with Aubry.