Jasmine Pinto was getting her daughter Jaida ready for school on the morning of Tuesday, June 8 when she happened to look out the window and notice something was different about her yard. She soon realized that a birdbath she had set up was missing.
“We usually look outside to watch the birds in the morning,” said Pinto.
“She likes to count them. She’s always loved animals and when we first got the bath, she was so excited to watch them ‘play’ in it.”
Discovering the birdbath missing caused Pinto’s two daughters Jaida, six, and Julianna, three, to become quite dismayed.
“Jaida was pretty upset that someone would do something like that,” said Pinto.
“She goes ‘why would someone do that mom?’ All I could think of to tell her was that some people feel they need something more than we do, that we have. And she replied with, ‘that’s not very nice. People shouldn’t steal.”
Pinto took to the local Facebook group ‘The Merritt Grapevine’ to voice her frustrations about the stolen birdbath.
“When I posted my ‘rant’ that’s all it was, just a rant,” explained Pinto.
“I didn’t expect anything from anyone at all.”
Pinto was surprised with the response she received.
“A friend of mine messaged me saying her uncle saw my post and was really upset so he had one he wanted to give us,” Pinto said.
“I was thinking a second-hand one. She showed up with a brand new one that he had bought when he went out later that day.”
And the generosity didn’t end there.
“The other lady was a friend of mine that sent me a message saying she had one in her yard I could have,” Pinto explained.
“When I told her that someone else had reached out and had one for us, she said that’s ok I’ll still give you this one. She showed up the next day with a brand new one explaining the one she wanted to gift us was cracked so she bought a new one. She said now both my girls can have one.”
Pinto wasted no time in setting up the new birdbaths, which she says bring in anywhere from two to twelve birds at a time, much to the delight of her daughters who have expressed how happy and grateful they are to have some of their favourite feathered visitors back.
