This Is Gross, Don't Look.

There was once a parable that my mother cross-stitched and hung on our walls for years. It went like this.

IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY

Once upon a time, there was a non-conforming sparrow that decided not to fly south for the winter.
However, soon the weather turned so cold that he reluctantly started to fly south. In a short time, ice began to form on his wings and he fell to earth in a barnyard, almost frozen. A cow passed by and crapped on the little sparrow. The sparrow thought it was the end, but the manure warmed him and defrosted his wings. Warm and happy, able to breathe, he started to sing. Just then a cat came by, and hearing the chirping, investigated the sounds.
The cat cleared away the manure, found the chirping bird, and promptly ate him.

The moral of the story:
1. Everyone who shits on you is not necessarily your enemy.
2. Everyone who gets you out of the shit is not necessarily your friend.
3. And, if you're warm and happy in a pile of shit, keep your mouth shut.

If you thought, “birds aren’t dumb enough to be made parabally example of,” you have funny trains in your thoughts. And you are wrong. I was walking through the barn and saw a feathery grey bundle where the wasn’t one before.
I looked closer and saw that a bird had gotten its bird-brain filled head neatly fitted into the space between some old loose siding and some cabling. And there it would stay. Something with funny eating habits denuded the head of its feathers. But by then the bird shouldn’t have minded too much. Some things are just literally too stupid to live.