Me too, I adore birds! Wow! You had to be good to get a bird alive out of a cat's mouth!
I will freely admit that painted buntings will steal your heart in a heartbeat. And they're pretty tiny too. Great idea to find a finch & repaint it. Technically where I live now is only in their migratory range but I hope, hope, hope that info. is just enough off that I may be lucky enough to have them for many months like I did down south. I think I will miss them as much as anything else.