Stacy gazed out the dining room window as she had done every afternoon that summer when her eyes locked with the unflinching stare of a rotund green mass perched on her neighbor's fence.  It looked like some sort of bird, though she doubted it could fly with its stubby little wings protruding from a body shaped like an under-inflated beach ball.  She wondered how it had managed to perch itself on such a high and precarious post.

No one would believe her.  She had to find her camera —quick.  "Please, please, don't go flying, or whatever, away," she silently urged the clumsy-looking green mass as she stealthily swung her legs over her chair and hurried out of the dining room.