Story of 'Mozzie' Blackbird

Three weeks ago one of my cats came in through the catflap carrying a largish dark coloured bird in his mouth. When I shouted at him he dropped the poor thing in the hall and ran off upstairs. I could see then it was a female blackbird. I picked her up giving her a quick visual once over. She didn't seem in any way injured...no blood to be seen, no drooping wing etc...understandably scared but not panicking either.In fact not doing anything really. No flapping of wings or resistance at all. Just sat there quite docile in my hands. Probably in shock I thought.

It was 5pm or thereabouts...can't be exactly sure of the time but it was dark outside. Unusual that it was caught in the dark and also unusual in that my cats rarely catch birds even in daylight, the two youngest being the only ones that catch anything...49-50 in cat years...usually catch rodents and even they are few and far between these days. I didn't want to release her in darkness only to be captured again so made a decision to put her in the greenhouse overnight and check how things were in the morning. I knew from experience that if she survived overnight she was in with a chance, but didn't really hold out much hope.
 To be continued...