Jeffrey...

We had a little Blue Jay... Well, kind of.
Last night two little Jay's blew out of our big tree. One was trying to fly and ended up stuck between the woodpile and the fence. I tried to help him by encouraging him to step up on a stick so I could put him someplace safer. That went well, except the momma bird went crazy and I thought I was going to get my eyes pecked out. (Kid you not. As soon as he was safe, I ran.)When I went out later, the two little birds were hopping around the neighbor's yard. They were very cute and the momma and daddy were close. Today when I got home, one of the little Jay's was hanging with K2 on the patio. It looked like something was wrong with his mouth, and he was so weak and scared. We managed to get some water into him via the rodent tube water thingy. He took to that very well and the kids were hopeful he'd be okay. He continued to hang out on the edge of the picnic table. The kids named him Jeffrey.
B and I knew something was wrong and we tried to prepare the kids for his eventual demise, (This was not our first bird rescue. They never end well.) but they were confident he was going to live and be their yard pet. Then...something bad happened. K4 scared him on accident (forgetting he was clinging to the leg of the picnic table) and he squawked and flew into K3's foot. And died. Chaos erupted. K4 cried, yelled that she'd killed Jeffrey, and ran to her room. K2 tried to coax Jeffrey back to life. K3 offered suggestions. We really thought Jeffrey had fainted or something. But... No.
Jeffrey was very truly dead.
I seriously don't think K4 accidentally startling him had anything to do with his death. He was very weak and, like I said above, something was wrong with his tongue. I don't think he broke his neck flying into K3 either. Obviously, he was a sick bird. He was beautiful and it was sad (and so weird). K4 is still feels responsible despite how many times and ways we've explained she's not. :(

Rest in Peace, Jeffrey. You were a beautiful baby.
The other thing is... the kids name everything Jeffrey. And everything they name Jeffrey dies (mainly plants - like K2's bonsai tree - and bugs). So the new rule in the house is that Jeffrey is a death name and no living thing shall ever be named Jeffrey again.
Behave!