Sleeping birdie.

Maggie wanted to go outside to enjoy the weather so we went for a short walk near our place and found a restaurant to have dinner at. While we were waiting for our food, I took Elsy out to explore the area. One of the patios nearby had half a dozen or so small birds fluttering about, with a raven in the mix. Elsy is always interested in looking at animals, birds especially so we wandered over and noticed that there was a bit of a commotion. The raven was pecking at one of the smaller birds that was lying on the ground. The other small birds were making a racket and eventually drove the raven away, but the poor creature still laid on the hard concrete. Elsy was pointing at the bird and we got closer to see. One of the restaurant patrons put the bird on a napkin and brought it over to the side of the patio away from traffic, and serendipitously right in front of us. We could see that the bird was having difficulty breathing. Elsy put her index finger to her mouth and made the shushing noise, indicating that the bird was sleeping. We watched for a few minutes, while the bird tried for a minute or so to get up and fly, but it's limbs looked quite damaged, and all it did was tire itself out. After a minute of struggle, it stopped flailing and laid back down on the concrete. A minute later it stopped breathing.

I don't think Elsy understands the concept of death yet, but this is the first time she's seen death face to face. She probably thinks that it just went to sleep. She probably doesn't realize that this bird will not awake from this final rest.