Giving God the Credit is my title for this very moving article by reporter Lance Winter. He is accurate and sensitive. Thank you Lance for this wonderful piece
Giving God the Credit is my title for this very moving article by reporter Lance Winter. He is accurate and sensitive. Thank you Lance for this wonderful piece:
When thinking of a sanctuary, words like asylum, immunity and protection come to mind.
But one of Weatherford’s sanctuaries — located on Zion Hill Road — is a shrine not for man, but a repository for his friend with feathers called Bird Tails.
Jean and Jim Gibson hadn’t been married long when a friend of Jim’s called him one day when he had just finished painting his warehouse. He said a bird appeared sick and that he had feared the fumes had poisoned it. Jean, a nurse, rushed in to see what she could do to help.
“I thought, ‘What do I know?’” Jean said. “I think it’s the adage once you’re a nurse, you think you can take care of anything.”
So the two took the bird, a kestrel, home to nurse him back to health and that’s how it all began.
Realizing their love and fascination for birds, the couple did an apprenticeship with On the Wing Again, an organization that rehabilitates injured birds, and became sub-permitees so they could take care of injured hawks, owls and songbirds.
For the next 12 years, until Jeans job took her out of the country, that’s what the Gibson’s did.
“[The job was supposed] to last two months but it lasted three years,” Jean said.
She added that she had to part with her hawks and owls and, by that time, she had some exotic birds like swans, geese and pheasants they had to get rid of as well.
But it was not long before returning home that she received a call from a veterinarian, Dr. Roger Kendrick, that said he had a client that could not keep her bird any longer.
“So we took in that one exotic bird and from that time on — and for the next 10 plus years — we have taken in exotic birds and cared for them,” Jean said. “Some we have given to others but the rest have stayed here and we’ve had some for a very long time.”
The oldest bird on the premises is 50 years old. In the last year and a half, Jean decided that it was time for the sanctuary to become self-supporting.
“So I got my 501(c) 3 and started spreading the word that I need help,” Jean said. “We need donations, volunteers; every little bit helps.”
In just a little more than a year, the couple has gone from caring for seven to eight parrots to more than 120 birds overall.
Asked if she is ever gets sad to see a bird she nursed back to health get adopted she replied, “No.”
“My perspective is a little different,” Jean said. “What has happened is that the birds are more of a means to an end. It’s the people that come out here – the surrenders – not the adoptions that break my heart.”
In particular, Jean recalled the story of a lady and her husband who came out to the sanctuary.
“She was on an [oxygen] tank and her pulmunologist said the bird had to go or he was not going to treat her,” she said. “The two of them were crying while they surrendered their bird – it broke my heart.”
A bird named Cowboy
Another fond recollection from Jean was the day she met Cowboy, a “really big” African Grey.
“It was her baby,” Jean said of the woman who surrendered him, and several other birds.
She said the lady was worried because the birds were living on the back porch and even though the weather was gorgeous, all of the birds were flight capable. All except Cowboy…
“I clipped the wings of everyone but Cowboy,” Jean explained. “The woman called me every morning and every evening checking on Cowboy.”
It was on a Friday evening, Jean said, that she had the door open and Cowboy came out and “hooked ’em.”
“He went up and over the hill and he’s gone,” Jean said. “What do I tell this woman; she has entrusted her baby to me.”
Ironically, Jean said, the lady didn’t call that evening or all weekend long, for that matter.
“We’ve taken the philosophy around here that within three days if the bird has not returned, they’re dead,” Jean said. “They don’t know where to find food or water and they can’t defend themselves.”
Jean, an advocate of prayer, said she then asked for some divine intervention.
“I said, ‘Lord, please, this woman cannot stand another loss,’” she said, explaining of the woman who had recently lost her husband. “About 10 minutes before sundown that Sunday, our neighbor was at our front gate blowing his horn. He said up the street there was a weird looking bird in his yard and he thought it might be ours.
“We went charging up the hill and I said, ‘Cowboy step up.’ Sure enough, Cowboy came running and stepped up on my hand; I lost it. I said, ‘Lord, thank you so much.’”
Jean said the woman called the next day and said she could not stand the silence in her home any longer and that she wanted Cowboy back.
“Within an hour, she was here and my youngest son said you have to tell her,” Jean said. “I told her he took off and that I was prayerful and it was answered and we got him back.
“I said I need you to know that God is using this not for my benefit — he brought your bird back to you to be your companion and to let you know he is with you.”
How to help
The sanctuary has two local corporate sponsors — Gibson Homebuilders and the Weatherford Farmer’s Market, Jean said, adding that the Director of Education at the San Antonio Zoo has also been a “wonderful” support for me by getting her information.
She said the market saves her around $100 per week with the donation of produce and plants to feed the birds but that what she really needs is to build a strong board of directors.
She added that if anyone wished to donate, PayPal is accepted by going to their website www.birdtails.org. She said with the recent influx of birds that were seized in Tarrant County that medical bills would be high.
“An eagle and a sparrow have the same value to me,” Jean said.
BY LANCE WINTER
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