Little Lady Cardinal

A little while back my baby girl had two friends stay the night. They were so cute, running around the house. Just having a ball! They mostly stayed in her bedroom, just ran through occasionally.
In the morning, I heard them tell my husband, at 5:30 a.m., that "they only slept FOUR minutes the whole night!!"
I couldn't believe I had not heard them, but that's fine, and I knew she'd be in the bed all afternoon!
First thing after breakfast, they donned coats and headed outside.
Two minutes later, they all three came back in with this.



I couldn't beleive they had caught this live, female cardinal!
They said they had seen it fly up on the porch, where she apparently hit her head, and fell straight back onto the porch in front of them! She was at the mercy of the dogs, so they picked her up!
She was amazingly calm!



Turns out she was a little goofy from the hit on the head she got!



We put her in a shoe box, where she calmly laid down.
Until about 5 minutes later, when the girls had long since left for the next adventure, and she was knocking the shoe box lid up!

We got the girls to come get her, and set her free.

One minute later, my baby girl comes in crying her eyes out.

I'm thinking, "We only had the thing about 10 minutes!" Hardly enough time to grow attached enough to cry about!

Turns out this is what happened when they went to set her free:
My daughter reached in to get her, and my husband said, "Let her go, now!"
But she couldn't.
Because the cardinal had latched onto her finger with her sharp, and apparently powerful little beak, and wouldn't let go!!
That's why my baby was crying! That thing bit the heck out of her finger!
She didn't miss it - in fact, I bet she thinks twice about helping out next time!