You can't get diseases from a bird!

I am house-sitting for my parents for the next couple of weeks. Not a bad gig, just one cat and some plants which I will endeavor to not kill. (Naturally, I make no guarantees.)

Today, I got to their house and was doing my walk around the yard, checking to see that all of the plants still had their drippers in them and that nothing bad had happened to anything in the landscape. Remember, this is day one of them being gone. The first thing I see, the thing which is right in front of the porch, is a dead bird. And it's not mauled in any way. It's like it just dropped out of the sky, beak pointed toward the sun. I have no idea how it happened.

It should be noted at this point that I have an unnatural fear of birds. Yes, I recognize that this bird is very, very small, but I have a problem with birds! It may stem from when they used to bring birds of prey to my elementary school to show us, but that's probably a conversation for another time. If you've ever seen the movie "The Birds" you can imagine what I'm fearing.

I call my mother in a panic. She asks if I'm sure the bird is dead. I tell her that I'm fairly sure. She thinks I should poke it. I disagree. She explains that I just need to get a shovel, get it into a plastic bag, and get the bag to the trash can. As we're talking, I walk back up the porch steps and there is ANOTHER DEAD BIRD on the porch. Again, nothing seems to be wrong with the bird, and in fact, the cat is sitting next to the bird, not interested in it at all. I can remember being a child and seeing what birds looked like when our cats killed them, so I know that she had nothing to do with this bird--he's in great shape, except for the death part.

Now, it's time to shovel the birds up. Clearly, there's some sort of death happening in the back yard? Should I be concerned? Nah...death seems to follow me around. A sudden mass death of flies? Check. Birds falling from the sky? Check.

Everyone who values their life should get away while they can. I must be bad news.