nearly every single friend reacted like this:
- yeah i saw on signal, very on brand
- of course you fucking did, tef
- took you long enough
- fuck's sake
give or take the one or two who shared my absolute childish glee over it
i was on my way to the showers, waylaid by whatever sidequests i could find, and someone went up to talk to me, only to be interrupted.
"you're good at crows, right" i guess
"there's a baby crow over here" what
it took me a moment to realise i wasn't being asked a photography question. there was a small little guy hanging out around the roots of a tree, and people had kindly given it a wide berth.
we looked, no obvious "call the doctor" injuries, but it did have a bit of a limp, and it was a bit unwilling to fly. we decided to let it vibe by the tree and put a sign up to keep people clear. the crow decided otherwise, and began hobbling towards the food trucks.
"i'm gonna have to pick this guy up."
let be clear, i was terrified, i was excited, but this was the last resort. the crow was rushing around crowds and we all got quite nervous, so i scooped it up and rushed to the exit. the plan was to put them outside the campsite to chill out and recover.
like a moment from the adam west batman film, i ended up running in the opposite direction. a dog walker and a dog off the leash had arrived by the time we'd gotten the fence opened, and i hurried back to the catering dumpsters.
help arrived later, we phoned animal rescue, we figured it was best to let the crow just vibe on their own, and i took a few seconds to take a few photos while i waited for answers. a box and hay arrived, we made a little water bowl, and we tucked them away at the edge of the campsite.
i did check in on them, from afar, and animal rescue arrived a few hours later. i felt a little guilty about taking a selfie, but the crow had already become quite chill around me once they realised i was shuffling them off to safety.
later on i found out that several photos of me had made their way around the orga backchannels, and everyone had heard about the baby crow before i'd got the chance to tell them.
it was very funny to hear "of course you did tef" but it was also a delight to see people gleefully poke over the photos.
one last thing:
the person who was trying to talk to me originally? they found me in the bar later on and explained "i was going to ask if you were the crow guy, but then you were carrying a crow around so i figured the answer was yes"
i will never live this down.
