Mom

My mom was afraid of birds because she was attacked by a chicken as a kid, but she LOVED watching them at a distance in her yard. When the mean blackbirds would bully the smaller birds she and my dad would go out and chase them away. She had a bird feeder and watched out for the smaller birds. She especially loved the doves.

Mom would have loved my backyard. I get to stand at my kitchen window every day and watch a variety of birds pulling worms from the ground, pecking in the grass, and gathering twigs for nests. And we have doves. I can't afford to feed the birds, but I have neighbors who keep them well-fed.

When my kids were much younger and I was homeschooling them, My mom went on a lot of field trips with us; two stand out in my mind because they involved birds. The first was a trip to Sea World in San Diego, CA. We were sitting at a table with a mesh umbrella over it eating lunch. Bekah was still very young and in a stroller; Dave was about 6 or 7 years old. All of a sudden a seagull pooped over the umbrella and it was like a shower through the mesh right on my mom! After the initial shock and a makeshift bath with baby wipes (I carried them everywhere!) we laughed till we nearly wet our pants! But my mom never liked seagulls after that!

The second field trip was to the San Diego Zoo. As the kids inspected every inch of the zoo,we went through an enclosed aviary. It never occurred to me that my mom was afraid and she never said a word, but as we left she was visibly shaken. I asked her why and she reminded me of her fear of birds, but she went through the aviary for the kids. She was the BEST Grandma her 9 grandchildren could have EVER wished for!

The ache of missing her has lessened over the years a little, but the depth of missing her gets stronger as the tears go by. On April 28th it will be four years since she took that last breath with me, Annette, and our dad at her side. I love you, Mom!

Critters

Of all the back yard joints in all of Omaha, Mrs. Rabbit has chosen MY back yard in which to birth her sweet babies.  Now, normally I would be delighted, tickled pink, ecstatic, overjoyed!  I love ALL animals and would kiss a possum if given the chance.  But I have dogs, and not just any dogs. I have three purebred Dachshunds (Butchie, Riley, and Ziggy) and one wild and crazy lunatic Chiweenie (Mozzie)!  Dachshunds are bred to hunt.  Mine feel it is their civic duty to keep ALL critters out of their yard and they are very successful at the job, especially Mozzie.

Right after Ziggy came to our family, he killed a birdie in our back yard.  This was in Henderson (Las Vegas).  Even though we fostered and had lots of Dachshunds in our home at that time, no other critters were killed.  Then we moved to Omaha, Nebraska, and my dogs thought they hit the lottery!

The first house we lived in, the yard was HUGE and there were many critters to tame.  Mozzie and Butchie killed a bird right away.  There were a few bunnies (a couple were babies that I held in my hand and whispered I’m sorry’s to as they took their last breath).  There was a snake (I wasn’t too sad about that)! The dogs did themselves proud while Mike and I looked on in horror and shed tears!

We moved to a small house and smaller yard last August, but there were still as many critters, maybe even more, for the dogs to torment.  Ziggy and Mozzie promptly injured a rabbit.  It got away, but I have no idea if it survived.  There was a lot of blood.  Fortunately, most of the critters, by end of last summer, were big enough to run fast and get away.  But now we have babies.

I discovered the hole stuffed with rabbit fur an area of garden that I have fenced off.  These fences mean NOTHING to Mozzie, as he enjoys jumping right over them.  They are also easy for small critters to get through, so when the babies become mobile, there will be no keeping them from my murderers…I mean my darling Dachshunds.

Anyway, when I saw the fur I was scared that one of my dogs got a rabbit!  I got a stick and dug very carefully a little way.  The sweetest, tiniest, most beautiful face looked up at me.  I quickly covered it back up and, so far, the dogs are blissfully ignorant of the babies’ existence.  For today.  There will be NO hiding these sweeties for very long!

Poor Mike.  He sat there saying over and over, “What are we going to do?”  I said, “We will have to keep an extra good eye on the dogs.” He said, “No, what are we going to do?”  He knows, as well as I do, that these sweet innocent babies are most likely doomed.  I will build up the area as well as I can with trash cans and other large items to keep Mozzie out.  The other dogs are too old and/or fat to jump over.  But eventually the bunnies will leave the nest and my dogs will feel the thrill of the hunt, once again.  And we will cry.