Caught: First Robin of Spring

Cleaning out my garage the other day and I discovered way in the back, behind the table saw and under the lathe the first robin of Spring. Unfortunately, he looked like the last robin of Winter.

Not sure when he got into my garage, but I suspect it was sometime over the winter because there were several weeks, maybe a month, I didn't go into the garage. Of course, it's also possible the neighbor's cat caught it and dropped it there, but I've seen the results of the cat's handiwork and it's more a yardful of feathers than a little corpse.

Two years ago when I was visiting Noah Fentz's haunt (The Creepy House Next Door) one of his props was a set of corpse hands reaching out between bars in a basement window. One of the hands was upturned and sitting within it was the corpse of a bird. He explained that the carcass was actually several years old and had been sitting there ever since a worker had picked it up and placed it there. He figured there was something magical about it since it never decayed.

While my wife thought I should take my robin and incorporate it into a prop, I opted for discretion and disposed of it instead.

So next year, if winter seems especially long (assuming the world doesn't end on December 21) you'll know why. I killed the herald of rebirth.