You were only waiting for this moment to be free...
Rick and Chuck thought it was a squirrel trapped in the chimney that had been making noise all day. Nothing seemed to be there when it was time to let it out...

I had hideous visions of evisceration, carnage and carpet damage when Chuck yelled, “Call Dad, I found it.” But what he found was a blackbird sitting on the bookshelf near the fireplace. (I think it was a blackbird; maybe he was wearing the evidence of a day in the chimney) It sat very still, not carroming about the house the way birds would when they would come down the chimney at the old house. This has happened enough to disabuse me of most belief in the Irish superstition of a bird in the house as a harbinger of death. If we had a death for every bird that got into the house our family would be one tight clique.

Rick scooped it up and took it outside. It made a few squawks of protest and took off. I’m happy for all of us that it didn’t find its way into the living room where the stuffed ‘raven’ is perched. It would be sad to have a traumatized bird on our hands. Or a bird enamored of an objet d’art.