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Kind things to do for animals

For something that cannot thank you, tell anybody, or know it was you. Several of these take under a minute and are unknown to most people rather than difficult.

8 ideas

• Leave the fledgling where it is

  A feathered bird hopping on the ground is not abandoned. Picking it up is usually the thing that kills it.

  5 minutesFreeAn animal

• Keep the cat in at dawn during nesting season

  Fledglings leave the nest unable to fly properly for about a fortnight. Dawn is when both cats and birds are busiest.

  5 minutesUnder $10An animal

• Take decent photographs for an animal rescue

  Shelter animals are rehomed on the strength of a phone snap in a concrete run. A good photograph is worth weeks.

  An afternoonFreeAn animal

• Walk the dog of somebody who cannot

  After surgery, during a bad stretch, or in the weeks after a bereavement. The dog is often the thing they are most worried about.

  Half an hourFreeAn animal

• Check under the car before you drive off in winter

  Cats sleep against warm engines and inside wheel arches. Ten seconds and a bang on the hood.

  5 minutesFreeAn animal

• Put water out in a heatwave

  A shallow dish at ground level, refilled daily. In a dry week it is the difference between a bird surviving the afternoon and not.

  5 minutesFreeAn animal

• Slow down at dusk, where the road meets the fields

  Most animals are hit in the half hour either side of dark, on roads people know well enough to stop concentrating on.

  5 minutesFreeAn animal

• Let one corner of it go wild

  Stop mowing a square yard. Leave the log where it fell. Neatness is the expensive part, for everything that is not you.

  5 minutesFreeAn animal