Is this normal?

Question

i was trying to save a sick pigeon from pain yesterday. after realizing he could not be helped i took him somewhere quiet where he would find his final peace. later i broke down and remained so for a long time. is this a normal reaction. thanx

Answer 1

to someone who understands empathy and death -- yes it's very common.

Answer 2

It is natural to feel grief at any loss. Whether your reaction should be regarded "normal" kind of depends on what you really mean when you say you "broke down" and for how long.

Sometimes we have exaggerated or surprising reactions to something, because we actually already have some of those feelings stored up inside us from something else.

For example, I remember hearing about the religious scholar, Mircea Eliade, becoming surprisingly upset when an old pair of his glasses broke. Reflecting on it later, he realized those glasses were the last thing he had left from his childhood home (Romania, from which country he was exiled for much of his adult life). So he was mourning a lot more than just the glasses; the loss of the glasses put him in touch with a lot of other things that he had lost.
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Answer 3

I don't know how "normal" (common) it is. I just know that I feel terrible every time I find the body of a little hatchling bird in the yard, where it clearly has fallen from the nest, and too late for me to save. I really feel it very personally and painfully, and just have to console myself in the knowledge that this, as harsh as it seems to me, is very much a part of the life of all living things. Some make it, some do not. I just feel sad for those that never got their shot at the full life span.

Answer 4

Sheri, what you did was quite compassionate. But let me make a suggestion. Pigeons can carry some diseases and since this one was sick you might want to watch yourself and check with a doctor if you begin to feel sick.

Please, I'm not trying to frighten you. It is highly unlikely that there is a problem. Many birds I understand are dying of West Nile Virus.

Thank you for being so compassionate to one of God's creatures.

Pastor John

Answer 5

Sure it's normal if you were really attached to the pigeon.

We had a couple cats that I had to take to the Humane Society because I could find no one to take them and my wife could no longer cope with the fur and dander and so forth and they were like my children. But I had to do it and still miss them to this day. They likely did not get adopted, which means they would have been put down, and I just felt awful about that.

Answer 6

You did the right thing. the other day after class I was driving down the road and saw a squirrel get run over. It seemed like it was in so much pain and I watched it have a seizure, after that I was in a really strange mood. I knew it was just a squirrel but I don't like to see anything suffer so much, it was just trying to cross the road.

Answer 7

ok... i understand your compassion but nature isn't a kind existence. From the smallest to the largest depends on eating something smaller than they are or weaker. That pigeon had an easy way out. Don't be so hard on yourself... you did the right thing.

Answer 8

A pigeon is one of God's creatures, and feeling compassion for it is quite normal. If you look at a pigeon from a distance, it can even look like a Dove.

Answer 9

Awww that's so sweet. *hugz*

Sure it is. You cared about the bird, even if only briefly, and you are sorry for it. What a wonderful action of empathy and caring. How many wild pigeons do you think have someone to cry for them when they die?

It just shows that you're sensitive and caring.

Answer 10

Your love for animals is sincere and that is good. It is sometimes sad to see any of God's creatures hurt but also imagine all the people that suffer from starvation every day and the people that suffer illness. It is a sad tragedy but we must look to the Lord and ask him to work in us to help these people.

Answer 11

Sure it is. The same thing happened to me when I was a kid. I found a bird that had been attacked by a cat. There was nothing I could do to help it. I felt so bad I cried for days, and had nightmares about it for years.