The Big Bird

Today in odd news in the UPI, I saw an article from July 7th, that said some officers were called to capture an emu that was running free. They eventually reunited the bird with its owner. Now in itself, the story didn't stand out much, but it reminded me of a time my oldest daughter was in preschool. Since the story that is to follow is true, I will omit the town and names to protect the identity of any innocent people.

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It was the spring of 2003, my daughter was 3 weeks from her 4 birthday, and I was driving to daycare to drop her off before work. The trip to the town I worked and she went to daycare is approximately 15 miles from our home in the country. We'd been singing along to the radio and I was listening to her just jabber away.

We were right at the city limit sign when I saw an emu running up the hill by the side of the road. At the exact same time, my daughter yells from the backseat, "That's a big bird!!!" Now with the bird running along the side of the road, I figured the best thing to do was go report it to the police so they could take care of it before someone ran it over. So, I made a quick 1 block detour out of the way to go by and report it.

Now, understand, this was a little bit before cell phones took over and became so popular. Not everyone in my area had one, and if they did, there weren't any towers close enough to get good service. So I couldn't just make a call on my way. It also wasn't something I thought the officer would believe if we weren't right there in person. So, I took my daughter with me, as a further witness to the reality of an emu running wild in Smalltown, Missouri.

Therefore, I took my daughter inside the police station with me. We waited patiently for the young officer to get off the phone. While we were waiting, the paramedics, who were stationed there, also came up to wait to talk with the officer.

The officer finally got off the phone and I started to tell him what we had seen, when my daughter interrupted and said plain as day, "There's a BIG bird running on the road!!"

Everyone was silent for a moment, then the officer said, "That's nice sweetie, you seen Big Bird." His tone of voice showed his boredom with his job.

I looked at him and rolled my eyes. I told him that he didn't understand her. She said a big bird, not Big Bird. I tried to explain to him that it was an emu running by the road and that it was a road hazard. I even told him that if someone hit the bird, it would cause enough damage to total a car.

The officer seriously looked at me like I was an idiot. Then in a tone that stated that he couldn't be bothered with such a simple mess, he said, "Oh, so it's about the size of a turkey...."

At this point, I stared at him like he had 3 heads. I couldn't believe anyone didn't know what an emu was unless they lived under a rock. I glanced over at the paramedics to see if they understood what my daughter and I were saying. The older of the 3 paramedics, actually had his face in his hands and was shaking his head. He looked at the officer and said, "No, you idiot. Not like a turkey. More like an ostrich. It's huge."

The officer just sat there a good minute before he jumped into action. He was finally placing calls when I turned and left with my daughter. I was actually 10 minutes late because of this. I really don't know to this day if my boss ever believed me.

About the emu, I never found out if it was captured and reunited with its owner or not. As far as I know, the bird escaped capture and was running in the woods for the rest of its life. It's a memory my daughter and I will never forget, though.