Kids These Days:

In Newport-Mesa and around the world there are many versions of a family. We have the traditional two-parent home, the single-parent home, homes with foster kids and kids being raised by relatives.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Nick, the “child” of my friend, Kathy. Kathy is single and Nick is a dog, but don’t tell Kathy that. When Nick was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago, Kathy went into full-tilt mom mode. I defy anyone to tell me that Nick is not Kathy’s child.

Over the past three weeks, we have been involved with another type of family. Sadly, that encounter resulted in a tragedy at our home, but no human beings were involved.

At the end of May, we noticed a couple of sparrows paying close attention and visits to a wreath hanging on our front door.

The wreath is meant to be displayed during the fall, but we liked it so much we never took it down.

Apparently the sparrows liked it, too.

We noticed them taking some of the small branches and sticks from the wreath, which we believed they were going to use to make a nest. It is, after all, spring, and love is in the air.

What we did not realize until several days later was that the nest they were building was between our front door and the back of the wreath.

It was an inconvenient spot to make a family, but we decided to work with the two birds. Sometimes, we walked around the house to get to our cars instead of going through the front door.

One of our family members, though, is our cat, Kisa. Kisa is 3, and because she is a cat, she took a special interest in what was going on atop her front door. (If you have ever had a cat, you know that it really is her front door.)

After a week of flying birds, we decided to look inside the nest. On that first day, we discovered an egg. Over the next three days, one egg appeared on each day. On the fourth day, the sparrows were done laying eggs, and they began to nest; to cover them with their bodies to help them hatch.

An online check revealed the baby birds should arrive in about 10 days.

We continued to be considerate of the nest, and just before last week, the home stretch of the nesting process, we decided to keep Kisa inside.

Kisa had been showing increasing interest in the nest and was making bold attempts to look inside. Or worse.

Last week, Kisa escaped our watch and got out. She went right to a ledge near the wreath and leaped for the nest, toppling it and sending the four eggs crashing to the ground.

The human reaction was to be expected. To say we were sad is an understatement.

It was hard not to blame Kisa, but we understood that she was just doing what cats do. And I suppose the case could be made that had we done a better job of keeping her inside, there would be four more sparrows in the world today.

The loss of the birds gave the Smiths an opportunity to remember something we have discussed often: Life is short and precious — even the life of an unborn sparrow.

The nest is still in the wreath in the hope that another pair of birds would seize the opportunity to save some time and effort and use a ready-made nest. But I don’t think it’s meant to be.

Kisa, meanwhile, is not paying any attention to the empty nest, as if she knows what happened and knows that no birds will return.

And I suppose her actions highlight one of the biggest differences between animals and humans. Humans can hope.

STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and a freelance writer. Send story ideas to dailypilot@latimes.com .