ON my dog walk in the mornings, I started to see a crow always in the same place.

I noticed after a couple of days that he couldn’t get off the ground because he didn’t have enough feathers to his wings.

I looked up what to do about that and the advice was: catch it and take it to the vet. Maybe, I thought, it might be as well to let nature take its course.

As soon as that thought entered my head, I remembered a doctor saying that about my mother in hospital and railed against it.

But he disappeared. Then, a week later, myself, the other half and the dogs went on a walk and the crow was back.

As soon as we got home, the OH says: ‘Let’s go and get that bird.’ So armed with two blankets and a box we set off up the road.

The crow hopped off into the undergrowth. We went back later that day. He did the same thing.

We crawled into the bushes trying to find him but he’d hopped up high into the branches. He was looking very thin, though he was still cawing at other birds to back off with all his might.

We took him some fruit hopefully to bulk him up. We tried the next day – twice – and the crow buggered off each time, by now obviously familiar with the two lunatics with the picnic blankets.

The next day, there was no sign of him and there hasn’t been since and I’m sad about that, sad that we didn’t manage to help him.

But my point being, ladies (or gents) find a man that cares enough about the small things like a little wild bird because that shows you the mettle of a man and how big his heart is.

And if he buys you diamonds as well, you’ve cracked it. Hint.

The part of this column was supposed to be an appeal as someone I know lost her brother recently and he had two cats she desperately needed to rehome to someone who would love them as he had.

It’s a task rehoming one, but two together is even harder when there are so many animals out there in shelters. Anyway, an early hopeful post on Facebook went up and a kind local lady said almost immediately ‘I’ll have them’ and she has.

I know when we adopted an old cat whose owner had died, it was one of the best things we did as we felt as if the lady who he lived with would be at peace knowing he’d be loved for the rest of his days – and he really was. ‘Pre-loved’ animals are as precious as any other sort.

I saw all the kids going to pick up their GCSE results from Horizon last week and it took me right back many moons.

I was okay, I got them all, but I know some girls who failed the big ones – the maths and English – and faced a dreaded resit.

It seemed to them like a mammoth task then, but really it is just a drop in the ocean of time. If you failed them because you cruised along, binned off your revision, then you can recalibrate, apply yourself, get the work done, resit the exam and you never have to see another quadratic equation again for the rest of your life.

All is not lost at this age if you need to go back to the drawing board. Take the wake-up call and run with it.