A fellow named Dave on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, stumbled across a tiny creature crawling in the wet grass in 2019—it was a delicate, helpless baby bird.
Dave looked for a nest or mother bird but could find neither. Not knowing what to do, he put the creature in his pocket to keep it warm and brought the baby bird home to his wife, Carol Dumeyer, who bonded with it.
Little did they know, the bird would become a member of the family.
Initially, Carol’s plan was to reintroduce it into the wild. She started feeding it with a syringe and kept its temperature up with a heat lamp.
After a few months, the bird started to make sounds as if trying to sing; Carol learned it was a Java sparrow, and a male at that, as female Java sparrows don’t sing.
In a bid to fulfill her rehabilitation plan, Carol took the sparrow—affectionately named Mr. Snuggles because of how he snuggled inside her bra as a baby—she took him outdoors to mingle with his bird family.
Some 200 Java sparrows flocked to bird feeders nearby, and they and Carol’s bird got on swimmingly.
Mr. Snuggles loved being among his own kind, but interestingly never forgot his human family.
“Some birds imprint strongly on whoever raises them, and some are not as strong, but sparrows are very strong imprinters,” Carol told The Epoch Times. “And so as much as I was introducing him to wild birds, he still knew me as mom.
“Over time, it became really interesting, kind of half-half where he’s definitely a wild bird, and he loves his bird family,” she added. “He flies with them, he’s an amazing flier, and they all communicate, but he still thinks he’s part human.
“He equally chooses being with us. And he and I are pretty close.”
Besides his human mom, Mr. Snuggles (or Snugs) grew to love the family cat, Maurice, although Maurice doesn’t necessarily share his sentiment. The “retired” rescue cat tolerates him.
“Anytime Maurice is in the house, Snuggles will fly and land near him and sing to him,” Carol said. “He just is smitten with wherever he is.”
At first, Snugs would spend the nights with Carol and her family and by day he'd hang out with his bird friends. However, Snugs’s fearlessness around humans soon became risky.
He would land on strangers, totally friendly like—but still. Carol would get messages from locals around town who'd found her bird.
So, Carol adjusted Snugs’s schedule, keeping him inside by day.
“In the evening, he’s outside with them,” she said. “They all go asleep in the trees. And then at sunrise at dawn, he comes back to the house and sings me awake and then spends the day with me.”
After almost two years, it’s been a wild ride that has opened Carol’s eyes.
“I had no idea what this journey would be like,” she said. “I had no idea how beautiful he would be, I had no idea how much personality he would have, and the depth of our relationship, and how much love and joy would be there.
“It’s just made me aware of how important it is to not judge animals as unworthy.
“You know that they have very complex relationships, and they’re all very intelligent, and they do love, and they do bond. And they do have very strong ties to their family.
“It’s been really amazing.”
Next in their adventures, the family is moving to the other side of the island. It’s unknown how Mr. Snuggles will adapt or find a new bird family—perhaps they’ll set him free.
