Feathered Friend by Arthur C. Clarke is a science fiction short story about a small canary and how her existence on the space station helped save lives
Explanation:
Characters:
Sven Olsen - At first thought as a Six foot Six inch Nordic construction worker in space BUT really a "wiry little fellow"
Claribel - "Small yellow canary"
Narrator - A worker on the space station
Jock Duncan - The cook, doctor and dietitian on the space station
The narrator says that he is unaware of a regulation that prevents pets from being on a space station and that Sven would ignore it anyway
Sven was the best space construction worker on the space station at the time and was a "wiry little fellow" which got him a bonus for being under 150 pounds
Unlike his Earth bound counterpart, Sven could step back and look at his work without fear of falling off the building
Sven was smart to have Claribel as a pet because it took close to nothing to support her
The author found Claribel after hitting his head on an "angle beam", he saw Claribel for the first time although he had been hearing her
Claribel, the canary, found out how to make her way in zero gravity and was efficient at it
Sven did not own up to her being his pet at first but did bring her up from a ferry from Earth after leave
Sven then said that he had brought her from Earth as a science experiment
They didn't have any trouble hiding her from VIPs from Earth as they always had explanation for the noises that she made even when Claribel was "upset"
The narrator woke up one day with a headache and was slow to do morning activities
Sven was missing from breakfast because he was looking for Claribel
Claribel was found in a stunned state and Jock Duncan could not hear a heartbeat
Someone said to give her some oxygen from an oxygen face mask which served as an oxygen tent for Claribel
The oxygen revived Claribel and she called everyone to breakfast but passed out again
The narrator notices that Claribel was passing out because of the air being bad; an air purifer had frozen and the single, 500 thousand dollar alarm "failed to go off"
Claribel had saved everyone's lives
The narrator says if one is ever on a space station to not be "surprised" or "alarmed" if there was birdsong recognized for the bird is only there as a cheap backup alarm system
