Always watched so he would not stray too far, he soon found that bugs are good to eat.

Earwigs were his favorite, he would follow you, waiting for you to turn over a rock or stepping stone. The bugs would run but Roscoe would have a feast.

Every afternoon when I came home after work. I would look forward to playing with Roscoe in the back yard. he was so much fun to watch. he was very alert and learning very fast about everything. One of those days. when the grass was tall. I thought it was time for a flying lesson. After all he was hopping and running very fast now and flapping his wings sometimes. So I picked him up. and cupping him in my hands. about two feet above the ground. I gently launched him as I would a model airplane. Roscoe let out a loud shriek. wings flapping like mad........but he went down and did a somersault in the soft grass. Well so much for that. I guess he's not ready yet. There was a lawn sprinkler we had been using in the yard. and although the faucet was turned off. it continued to drip. Roscoe needed a drink after his flying lesson so he hopped up on the top and bent over to catch a drip. The smooth metal surface of the sprinkler didn't give him a good grip and he lost his balance and was hanging on up-side down. wings flapping. but still getting a drink! About a week later he had another flying lesson. this time he went about four feet.

and he avoided collisions with lamps and furniture and sometimes people. One Saturday morning Roscoe was outside and we were just sitting down to a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and hash-browns. Roscoe smelled the food,( and we always fed him a little bit from our plates.) He would wait around by our feet until you gave him something, but this morning he came flying in through the kitchen door. made a sharp left turn, saw the food on the table, and went right into a plate of scrambled eggs! Roscoe and the eggs slid off the plate, and now he was doing a kind of dance with the eggs stuck to his feet! My wife grabbed him, ( it was her plate) and he let out a squawk so loud you would think he was murdered! Visitors to the house were sometimes surprised by the little clown, who would fly in through the open door and land on the furniture as we sat talking. He was a big bird by now. and it was very unexpected to see a bird this size free and comfortable enough to come inside. I was talking to a friend in the living room one afternoon and Roscoe heard our voices from the kitchen, he came flying out the door and making a sharp turn. headed straight at us.

Then one day, I called him and he did not answer. in disbelief! called him again and again, but still no answer. I know that lately he had been flying out of the yard and down to the trees and creek below. Sadly I thought this may be the day, the day that he feels ready for the world. My son and I searched for him for two days, we searched for any clue, prepared for the worst, we found no sign of him. His cage waited on the back porch, the door open and sun flower seeds inside. The house was quieter now, but oh how we missed the little rascal. A pair of jays came into the yard, and we hoped that one could be Roscoe, but if we went outside they flew away. It was hard to look at his empty cage with the sun flower seeds still inside. A neighbor girl said that she saw a big bird underneath her picnic table as she looked out her bed room window, and my son and I went over to investigate. Yes! We found him, and he's still alive although he seems dazed, and some of his feathers are missing. But he survived the days and nights with the cats prowling.

We carried him home and brought his cage in the house, but Roscoe seemed depressed and didn't want to eat. My guess is that the other jays attacked him for his human scent and tame manners, and then too, he did not speak their language. For a few days he stayed in his cage, even though the door was left open. He did not eat very much, and made no sounds,(very unusual for him.) Then one evening as we were watching t v, he gave a loud squawk! We rushed to the cage thinking he was hurt or something, but he was fine. He looked up at us with his bright eyes and we knew at that moment he was going to be all right. Soon he was back in the air, his flying range was getting longer and longer, and he had less and less to do with us. He was growing wiser and ready for his new life. In a couple of weeks he was gone. I would look over the back fence, down the hill at the trees along the creek and try to see him, I felt that was where he chose to be.

And I remember that he used to perch on this fence and look at those trees where there were no houses, and no people, just the robins and sparrows and the jays like him .

So then the seasons changed and life had its own priorities, thoughts of the little clown became memories and he was all but forgotten.....except in our hearts.

Strong winds blew the trees back and forth one afternoon near the little house on a hill, in the city. The tall ones bent and the sunlight sparkled on their leaves as they made a kind of a graceful dance. The one by our up-stairs bedroom window made brushing and tapping sounds against the glass. But there was another noise, not the kind that the wind or the tree could make, an occasional faint noise, but very familiar. I raised the shade and peeked out at the tree, it was so thick all I could see were the leaves dancing with the wind. I heard the noise again, and the wind moved the tree just enough that I caught sight of a nest, a nest with two baby blue jays looking at me! All new thoughts of Roscoe came into our minds, maybe these were his babies. Would any wild jay build a nest so close to humans? Well we don't know for sure, but we would like to think that Roscoe brought his family to this tree to be close to us, and the house, the sounds and smells of cooking, the t v and the voices of his adopted parents. What do you think?