Our kids had a lot of fun this spring with the neighborhood animals.
One day the kids found a bird on our lawn. It wouldn't fly away. I don't know if it was injured or very old, or sick, but it wasn't looking great. The kids were convinced they could nurse it back to health, so they cornered it with a bowl of grass and seeds.
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They were worried about an animal getting to it that night, so they gently guided it between the fence post and the fence boards you see by Everett.
The bird didn't respond to much, so I would have been surprised if it had been alive the next morning. It wasn't. The poor bird was still tucked safely in the fence but it didn't make it through the night. After a few tears, the kids understood and just knew it was flying around in heaven.
This burrow appeared overnight in our little playhouse. We examined it for a while, the kids shoved some vegetables down the hole (because the swarming rabbits obviously aren't getting enough to eat). Someone shut the door to the playhouse as we left the burrow, and then we watched with amusement as the rabbit came searching for a way back in. We moved the house and Joel dug out the burrow, and that was the end of that.
Except it wasn't--several more burrows appeared in our yard before the rabbits must have decided that our yard was not the right place to call home.
But there was a little nest of teeny babies by our fence. Every time we went outside to play, the bunnies would scatter like ping pong balls from fence to tree to bush and back to the fence. The kids never tired of chasing them.
Ashley discovered that she loved holding the bunnies. I discouraged it (obviously, since I was the one taking pictures. . .) and demanded lots and lots of hand-washing. ("Don't touch anything until you scrub your hands! No, don't touch that! And I said don't touch your face! Actually don't touch anything on your body or anything else, anywhere, ever! Let me get the door for you!") But Ashley loves animals too much to resist.
"Come on little fella," she'd say, "It's ok." And then Ashley would tell the bunny all sorts of things she thought it ought to be aware of.
One day we discovered the decapitated remains of one of the baby bunnies on the sidewalk. Everett and William and James were sad, and Ashley was devastated. They were sure it wasn't an accident. "Who would do such a thing?" Ashley wondered all day to no one in particular. It did seem pretty suspicious--a natural predator would not have left the remains behind, and there was no head to be seen. But the mystery will never be solved.
There are two ponds by our house, and in the spring they are filled with cute little ducklings. The kids had a lot of fun watching them swim and occasionally wander through the neighborhood, bopping along in a wiggly trail behind the mother duck.
When we went to the ponds one day, we noticed there was a mother duck with two healthy looking babies and a scrawny duckling tagging along. When it got close to the mother, she'd peck at it until it floated away. The kids immediately banded together with some friends to rescue the duckling. It wasn't difficult, and, duckling in hand, they went around to each of their three mothers (including me) to beg for a home to keep the duckling in. My cold, black heart permitted me from saying yes, but my softie of a neighbor (who loves animals) agreed to bring the duckling home. It was a win-win for me. The kids could go visit and I didn't have to worry about maintaining another little life under my roof.
Unfortunately, that duckling didn't make it through the night, despite being set up cozily with a heating lamp and plenty of other comforts.
When my neighbor told the kids, they were all pretty quiet, until Ashley interrupted to ask for another cinnamon roll.
I guess at that point Ashley had gotten used to the way of the circle of life, and I guess it's safe to say this spring has been pretty educational for us all!
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