December 2020
This is the story of Buddy the Seagull.
One day in early fall, Anastasia and her Daddy were at their favourite waterfront park. Anastasia saw some seagulls on the beach, and played one of her favourite games of running after them.
All the seagulls scattered and flew away; all except for Buddy. Buddy didn’t fly away. He tried, but his injured wings wouldn’t carry him away. Instead, he limped away on an injured leg.
Anastasia and Daddy could tell Buddy was hurt. So, Anastasia carefully followed Buddy as he limped around a small area of the beach, being very careful not to scare him. Eventually Buddy felt comfortable enough to let Anastasia approach him.
Anastasia and Daddy worried that because Buddy was hurt, that he might not be able to compete with his seagull friends for food, and they were worried that Buddy would go hungry.
So, Anastasia fed Buddy with some of the granola bars that Daddy had in the car. She even gave Buddy a butter tart. Buddy was very grateful and gobbled down the food as fast as Anastasia could share it with him.
Some of Buddy’s duck friends tried to get some of the food, but Anastasia and Daddy kept them away so that Buddy could eat his food without having fight with them for it.
After Buddy finished the last of the food, he limped to the edge of the lake so he could take a drink of water. Then he paddled away, floating on the gently rolling water.
Anastasia and Daddy decided to come back another day to check up on Buddy, just to make sure that he was OK.
Three days later, Anastasia and Daddy came back to the park and found Buddy, still limping along the beach. They fed him some more food, which he happily ate up.
After finishing the food, Buddy limped a short distance away. He then spread his wings and flew about 50 feet, landing at the edge of the water. He seemed better, but he was still hurt.
A week later, when Anastasia and Daddy came home after an afternoon out, they got the surprise of their lives: they saw Buddy standing in front of their house, which was around 3 miles away from the beach.
Buddy looked at Anastasia and Daddy, then spread his wings and flew away.
He was all better now, and was letting Anastasia and Daddy know that he was OK now. The food that Anastasia gave him helped Buddy to regain his strength, and Buddy wanted to say thank you.
The moral of this story is you should always be kind to everyone; people and animals, because you never know how much that kindness may be needed.
It will always be appreciated.
