Animal ER

Yep, we need an animal ER around here. It's been animal adventures the last few weeks. Unfortunately, not all the stories end happily. I'll start with the most dramatic, titled in W's journal as "Day of Death."

• One day we found a cute little chipmunk in our house. He had been attracted by the sunflower seeds we scatter on the deck for the chickadees and finches. A very friendly, young chipmunk, easily tamed. We had him eating out of our hands in no time. And he would nonchalantly stroll into the house and run around the kitchen for a while with the kids chasing him until he got tired and ran out the door. Well, we also had some "pet" salamanders and some "pet" algae living in a tub out on the deck. One night it rained and rained and rained and rained and the water level in the tub went up and up. The next morning A came screaming into my room, tears streaming down his face: "Our chipmunk is dead!" Tragically, he had drowned in the salamander tub. It was really very sad and we all cried for a while. Then we held a chipmunk funeral. Here's a picture of his grave:

• There is a family of robins who build a nest under our deck every year. Right now there are three nests, all on top of and beside each other since they feel the need to build a new one every spring, apparently. This year there were 5 baby robins in the nest and we watched them hatch and grow and eat chewed up worms. The day after the tragedy with the chipmunk W came screaming into my room, tears streaming down his face: "One of the baby robins fell out of the nest and is dead." Yep, it was true, although I think it was pushed out of the nest by the other 4 greedy little birds. W, still crying, observed that "it didn't even have a feather! Why do little things always have to die?" I had to agree: "Life is hard for little things." We buried it with the chipmunk.They now have a plan to pad the ground under the nest next year with foam to catch any other baby birds that happen to fall out.
• A few nights ago, Eric walked into the house with a baby killdeer (bird).

Thankfully it wasn't dead or injured, just stupid. 4 of these little babies were running across the road and he stopped to pick one up and bring to safety (via our house). I don't know much about these birds except that they lay their eggs right on the ground, usually in a rocky area and if you approach the nest the mother bird will flap around like she has a broken wing and lead you away from her eggs while the father bird flies around and screeches at you. They are very fast runners as you probably could have guessed by looking at this baby's long skinny legs. So let's hope this one survives!

• We've also had all manner of frogs, toads, grasshoppers, leeches, daddy long legs, etc. as "pets". M had a pretty pink grasshopper that she loved to death. And W is dead set on capturing a dragonfly and putting it on a leash made of dental floss. I do not know where he gets these ideas but I wish him luck!