Sunday School .... Learning to Co-exist♥

I am constantly amazed to see and learn about the animals in our "neighborhood", like Racquel Raccoon, who has learned that she gets sunflower seeds ONLY if she gets up early.  Then there are the myriad of woodpeckers including the Northern Flicker who you are more likely to flush up from the forest floor than see in a tree.



And the turkey vultures, that are the garbage cans of the carcass world, even if the carcass is a floating fish.  Nature is amazing!

Early yesterday morning, I looked out the living room window to see Annie the deer grazing on wildflowers (a/k/a, weeds) not 4 feet from me, the little stinker. Now I KNOW who ate my Asiatic Lilies, LOL♥ But it is, still, a small price to pay for having the opportunity to see these critters! My Maximillian perennial sunflowershave been left alone, so I'm good

with losing a few flowers here and there. Later in the day, she brought her fawn out to graze with her, and I now also understand just why Shadow has been taking me out to a low trail just left of the detached garage.  It's where Annie leaves her baby when she comes a'callin by herself.  I tell you, Shadow probably knows all the forest critters, and talk about co-existing ... well, except for some playthings he accidentally kills, he has tons of friends in
the woods or so it seems. I managed to revive this little bird he brought in to me yesterday, thankfully... just holding it for a bit til it's heart rate slowed and it stopped gasping, calmed it down enough that it flew out of my hand after just a few minutes.  Thank goodness both of these cats have such 'soft' mouths...

Of course, my little friend Spooky Cub has been out and about along with the other critters, he is just a sweetheart.  Cautious, and indeed spooky ... yet he sits and watches as our vehicles drive not 15 feet past him.  But he gets easily startled (blue jays seem to make him crazy!!), and when the winds were picking up yesterday, he was too jittery to stay around very long.  We have taken to putting the daily seed ration out in the early AM, so breakfast is "served" but the rest of the day, the critters need to fend for themselves.  It's working well so far ...no daylilies lost (yet) either.  Of course, there is plentiful clover and other native plants, seeds and insects to keep everyone more than well fed even without our daily offerings.  I am blessed in so many, many ways.

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You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. ~ Unknown ~

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