What are the odds?

I have heard the expression that lightning doesn't strike in the same place twice, but given enough time, I expect it does.  I know for a fact that it is possible in one lifetime to have a ruffed grouse fly through a window of  a couple's home on two occasions...in different houses.  Just what are the odds of that?

Our first home was a cute little 3-bedroom ranch on a dead end road in the woods.  A couple of years after we were married, my husband and I were sitting in the kitchen eating lunch when we heard a crash and the sound of shattering glass in the bathroom.  We did not stop to look into the bathroom, but headed straight outside, expecting to find a neighborhood kid standing there with a ball glove and an embarrassed expression.  To our surprise no one was in sight in any direction.  We stood there briefly pondering this and looking up at the hole in the bathroom window.

"Uh-oh," I said, the image of various species of dead birds we had found under the picture window lodged in my brain.  "Do you suppose that it was a bird, and that it has landed in the bathtub?"
We hurried inside, opened the bathroom door and gasped at the scene....shattered glass and feathers everywhere!

Sure enough, there in the bath tub lay a ruffed grouse.  In case you have never seen one, they are shaped something like a football with a tail attached.  The screen, which had been inside the window, had been knocked out and was in the tub with the bird.  The bird's beak having pierced the screen seemed like the logical explanation for the hole in it.  The bird was not quite dead.

Now, I am a nurse and have been a biology teacher, but the sight of the dying bird in my bathtub made me queasy.  My husband, who normally has a weak stomach, sat down on the edge of the tub and gently stroked the bird as it expired.

"I am going to the basement to do the laundry," I said. "If you get rid of the bird, I'll clean up the mess."
He did, and I did.  It took me and hour and a half to clean up all the glass shards and feathers.

I am not sure I would have been able to take a bath in that tub again, except that I reasoned ruffed grouse weren't flying around in the dark, and I normally took a bath before I went to bed.

About 35 years later, we were living inside the city limits in an old Victorian home.  My husband stopped home during the day while I was at work and was startled to find a broken living room window.  Both the storm window and the inside window had been shattered.  He began looking around, thinking he would find a ball or a rock.  No.  But, hiding under a nearby table was a ruffed grouse.  It had survived it's errant trajectory, but not without injury.  He picked it up and put it in a box on the front porch.  It made no attempt to fly or get out of the box....just sat quietly trembling.

Later we called a friend who is fond of wildlife.  He noticed that the bird's beak was broken.  It would not be able to eat and would not survive.  He carried it off....I expect to his dinner table.  We had buried the first intruder, much to the dismay of my husband's grandfather, who had declared that ruffed grouse are good eating.

I read an article recently that most people who live in our area hit a deer at least once in their lifetime of driving.  Neither my husband or I have ever hit a deer.  We are hoping that double ruffed grouse incidents take care of our wildlife encounters.