Are sweeter than roses in the garden...

Only me, only me.

I was determined to go out into the pouring rain on Tuesday to make copies of my flyer for the art sale. And I knew I wanted to do this at the library.

So the wee man and I put our rain boots on and took off in the little Honda.

We have a library in town, but there is something about it that's just bad mojo. It's attached to the police station and courthouse. ???

There happens to be an extremely nice library in a cute village one town over from us. We drive past my "hey Lady" lake. It's ideal.

This day, did not go as planned.

As we turn the corner to drive past the lake, I noticed a swan in the road. He wasn't in the middle, but still in the road, easily a target for someone going to fast. I stopped and yelled at him and honked. He looked at me and hissed, yes hissed, then started preening himself. Instantly I was worried. He wouldn't move.

As soon as I was in the library I went to the reference desk and they looked up animal control for the town. Great. I went outside and they told me they couldn't handle anything other than dogs or cats. The woman on the phone was kind enough to give me another number. Thanks. It's in ALBANY. It's like 2 hours away, what are they going to do. But I called, and well they were not at their desk.

So we finished our library work and drove back. Swanny was still in the road. It was raining hard again. I couldn't leave him. So I drove up close behind him and put my flashers on. There is an inlet on the other side of the lake, so the wind started whipping up and spraying rain on me. Some cars slowed, some cars sped by. Let me tell you, only 3 people stopped out of 50 to ask if everything was OK. 3 people! One woman said she would go into town and they would send someone out. This was after I had been standing by the swan for 30 minutes.

Can you believe this? Finally a nice man from the city came out and tried to make some calls, everyone was out to lunch. He said he would try to move the swan, at least off the road. He took a shovel out of his pickup and slowly and gently tried to nudge the dear swan. The swan had been hit, his right leg was broken, and this in turn broke my heart. The gentleman said he would make sure the right people would come and get him. (And what put him out of his misery?)

He drove off, and I was still unsatisfied. There were some cones around the street for some sidewalk construction, so I traipsed in the mud to get some cones and place around the swan, in the road. I would have moved a barrel but they were filled with sand and far too heavy to move.

I drove away worried for this beautiful creature. And then the tears came. I handled myself well, standing in the rain, but then the floodgates opened. My son and I had other errands to run but I told him I needed to change my clothes. back home. As soon as I walked through the door, I collapsed on the living room floor from mental exhaustion.

About 2 hours later my husband asked if I wanted to go by and see if swanny was still there. Hesitant at first, I finally said yes.

He was gone and the cones moved. I can only hope the young male was taken to a vet. Please.

And that is my swan song.