Noel's story is one of courage and triumph in the face of terrible odds. A week before Christmas I walked in the pet store to pick up supplies for the other animals. Upon walking into the back room to see the hamsters that were going to have babies I saw this lone finch sitting on top of the hamster cage. This poor little angel had been beaten, battered, and bloodied by the other finches she had been kept with. My heart went out to her, and I asked the sales lady what was going to happen with this poor baby. Well her answer of, "You don't really want to know" was all it took. Immediately I said I wanted her.

I didn't get to take Noel home that night, the owner wanted to keep her a bit longer to make sure she would be ok. The next day I called to check up on her, and was informed that I could go and get her. Well I jumped into the car with cage in tow, and hightailed it to the pet store, there was no way I was going to leave her there a second longer than was necessary. Noel settled in pretty quick, and spent the first couple of weeks looking out one eye. At first we believed that she had lost the second one in the fight, and we made preparations for her longterm care. Her cage was placed so anyone entering the room would be where she could see them, and all food, water, and toys were placed on the right side. We kept the perches low in case she should miss when jumping from one to the other and fall. For us Noel was a Christmas miricale, and a living angel.

After Christmas and several trips to the vet, Noel was beginning to heal quite nicely. Several days before New Years Eve Noel began to scratch at her scab and rub her eye on the perch, causing it to swell up once again. After another trip to the vet to make sure there was no infection, she had managed to rub the scab off. Well imagine our surprise on New Years Eve when I got a good look at what laid underneath, she still had her eye!

Noel is now fully healed, or as healed as she can get. She will never look completely like other finches, and will always have some scaring from her terrible ordeal. But she now leads a normal life, with perches high in the cage and toys hanging all around. She is also a very finicky little girl, and had me running in circles trying to find her a bed that was suited for her, instead of the food dish she is perched on in this picture. At one point we had got her a plastic apple, and although she rejected it as a bed we decided to give into her and moved her food to the apple, which she graciously accepted as a food dish. Several weeks later she chose the apple as her first nest.

We had got Nick about a month after Noel, and had planned on them being next door neighbors after the appropriate quarantine period so that Noel could have the company of another finch. Nick always acts like a very proud birdy, but upon his first meeting with Noel he overlooked her physical appearance and although he played hard to get a few times he qucikly fell in love with the angel next door. A few weeks after their first meeting Noel laid her first egg in her chosen apple dish. I then decided that if she were going to lay eggs without him in the cage that I might as well let them have their romance together. Two days later Noel laid a second egg, only this one had been fertile. Unfortunately none of the eggs from this clutch hatched since both parents had no experience.

With the failure of the first clutch I decided it was time to send Nick to parenting school so he could learn what was expected of him during the incubation period and the days following. He was still waiting for his first day of school when Noel laid the first egg of the second clutch. At this time parenting school became an emergency. Well he passed with flying colors, and tended the nest and Noel with exceptional care. But still no eggs are hatching and already Noel has thrown 3 of 5 from the nest. Maybe one day babies will come of their whirlwind romance, but for now they both need a break so they can recover from all the stress of trying to have kids.