I woke up today in a situation that felt like a nightmare. Anyone who has followed my writing over the years knows that my love for animals often surpasses my love for people. I have never been ashamed to admit that. I am the person who cries when the dog dies in a movie. I can sit through scenes of human tragedy with tears in my eyes, but show me an innocent animal suffering and I completely fall apart.

That is why what happened this morning hit me so hard.

For the past three weeks, the weather has been incredibly warm. One week even reached the level of a Code Red heatwave. Every night I lay awake in bed because of a horrible smell. It was not the heat that kept me awake. It was a stench so overwhelming that I honestly thought something had died inside the house.

In the darkness I searched under my bed but could not see anything. I asked my daughter to smell it as well, but she had a cold and could not smell a thing. I washed my sheets. I cleaned my bedroom. Nothing helped. The smell remained.

Last night my breathing became much worse. I am used to respiratory problems, so I blamed my health rather than the smell.

Then my cat suddenly started throwing up under my bed. I tried to catch him, but he escaped. Frustrated, I pushed my enormous king size bed away from the wall.

There was something lying underneath.

I carefully picked it up with a piece of paper.

It was a beautiful little bird with bright yellow feathers.

I completely lost it.

I started crying uncontrollably. I yelled........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)