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Lorenzo the Magnificent : the Story of an Orphaned Blue Jay
Lorenzo the Magnificent the Story of an Orphaned Blue Jay Author:Robert Franklin Leslie The baby blue jay was the size of a golf ball and near death when he reached Bob Leslie's "Emergency Door." Leslie and his wife, who had long operated a clinic for orphaned wildlings, thought this was a hopeless case. — Soon, however, the jay became Lorenzo the Magnificent and earned a reputation as incurable thief, disturber ... more »of the peace, and violator of everybody's privacy. Outdoors, he controlled the world from his holding cage; inside, he invited himself to meals (where his table manners were atrocious). On a perpetual quest for joy, he invented boisterous games of hide and seek, sang duets with the mockingbird Kaufman, and supervised his rapidly increasing inventory of toys. Detachable objects -- jewelry, eyeglasses, and, on one hilarious occasion, a hairpiece -- aroused Lorenzo's immediate curiosity and thieving instincts. Only the music of Brahms or Bach could reduce him to silence.
From the beginning, the Leslies educated their ward to earn his way in the wild community; and when the time came, the jay's internal clock told him the exact hour. Lorenzo still lives at the same address. With the neat little jayhen who became his mate, he has raised many jaychicks, possibly the best-adjusted rogues in the neighborhood.
"Just another sentimental animal story? No! I could not put this book down once I started. The author's literary style matches his consummate skill as an observer and recorder of natural history and animal behavior. He gives a brilliant and entertaining revelation of the incorrigible and irrepressible spirit of the blue jay, through which we learn how intelligent and aware birds really are. A sense of wonder and reverence for all creatures arises spontaneously as this story -- a tribute to an orphaned fledgling -- unfolds its wings." --- Dr. Michael W. Fox, Scientific Director, The Humane Society of the United States« less