VICTORIA -- Charlotte heard the crow first, landing on the street signs that she passed on her walk to work. Then it flew to the ground and started following her on foot.
“I thought this was really weird,” Charlotte recalls. “Then he walked me to the door.”
Charlotte had never noticed the bird before, but it accompanied her all the way to the building. When she arrived at her third-floor office, she looked down and saw it was still waiting at the front door. When the crow noticed Charlotte, it immediately flew up to her balcony to meet her.
Charlotte fed the crow a bit of her granola bar and named him Bob.
Charlotte says Bob walked her to work every morning after that. She shows me videos of their unique commute and office visits. Charlotte says she could always tell it was him because he had noticeably bumpy feet and walked with a limp.
The family therapist says her clients bonded with Bob too.
“They would start crying about something and Bob would magically show up on the balcony,” Charlotte says.
The clients would be relieved seeing the bird. “He would just sit for the whole session on the ledge, being with us.”
On other occasions, Bob brought two other crows with him. Charlotte’s young clients named them Fred and Evelyn.
Charlotte has a picture of the trio tattooed on her wrist.
“They’re so important to me,” Charlotte says. “And they’ve helped so many kids.”
After prompting countless valuable conversations — and after a year and half of daily visits — Bob suddenly stopped showing up.
“[The children] would say, ‘Where’s Bob?’ And I had to say to them, ‘I think Bob’s died,’” Charlotte explains.
“It gave us an opportunity to [appreciate him] and say how wonderful it was that Fred and Evelyn brought their baby.”
A baby the children named Bob Jr., who somehow broke the top of his beak off.
“He couldn’t eat because he couldn’t pick-up his food with his beak,” Charlotte says.
But Charlotte found a way to feed him daily. She would wait until he was finished —no matter how long it took — and shoo-away the seagulls who tried to “bully” Bob Jr.
But then the coronavirus came and Charlotte could no longer come to work.
“I felt very helpless when I couldn’t come to the office,” Charlotte says. “I was worried that they would think I abandoned them.”
So, Charlotte posted a plea on social media, sharing the crow’s story and asking people in the neighbourhood to feed Bob Jr. while she was away.
She was heartened to hear from so many strangers who did.
“This little bird would [usually] have no real impact on their life,” Charlotte says. “But right now — during the crisis — its a little glimmer of community and hope that people are looking for.”
And when Charlotte finally returned to work, Bob Jr. was there to greet her, looking healthy.
Perhaps he came back ready to follow in the footsteps of Bob Sr., to help people the way that people have helped him.
