On this trip, we stayed with a friend of Jet’s (my foster mom). The owner of the house fed the critters in the area so every morning they showed up to eat. This was like getting first row seats at the natural zoo of life.
The house was built on a giant hill and except for a chain link fence in the backyard, there was nothing between the house and this magical world of nature. Within minutes of placing the food outside there were three chipmunks which Jet thought were very cute but I just thought they would be good to chase all they way in to my mouth. There were squirrels (and I know how fun they are to ‘play’ with) along with some funny little birds doing what looked like the funky chicken. The birds, a mom, dad and a bunch of itty, bitty babies weren’t real keen on flying. My foster mom (Jet) told me they were quail. (Looked like bait to me.) In any case, I’ve provided a little video of these quail guys for your viewing enjoyment.
The quail were so interesting that I didn’t look at them as just another meal to chase for a few minutes. The family showed up from the bottom of the hill and stopped at the chain link fence. The dad quail jumped to the top of the fence and looked around and then squawked to the mom and babies. I guess that was the “all safe” signal because the mom started prodding (with her beak) all the babies through the holes in the chain link fence. As soon as the entire family of 11 babies was through the fence, they scampered over to the food. Then, it was eating time and all the critters along with the bobbing up and down quail feasted while the papa watched for enemies (that would be me) before joining the family for breakfast.
I realized I had just witnessed something very special: a family. The dad quail was careful to oversee the babies’ safety while mom made sure they had plenty to eat. The babies enjoyed a good meal, learned to forage and play.
As Jet would say, the experience gave me pause. In that moment, I realized there is something even better than a good (quail) meal: the togetherness time of a good family.
So, here’s my lesson of the day… Sometimes humans get obsessed with their jobs, children get obsessed with getting new toys and dogs get obsessed with new treats. All that energy is poured in to ‘stuff’ that doesn’t have near as much meaning or heart-pumping happiness fuel than time with a loving family. Humans should remember, that’s all that really matters, switch of the TV, and wrap their attention around their kids AND DOGS for some special togetherness time every day.
Okay, here’s the question of the day from Scrapper who asked: What’s so special about my poop that my dad picks it up in a bag out of the places where I leave it?
Dear Scrapper:
Poop is not ‘special’ to humans. It is annoying to them. (I know it’s hard to believe.) In the scheme of things, I’m not sure why it makes a difference since the darn stuff disintegrates in no time but since humans don’t share our view of the subject, please either poop in your own yard or make sure you give your humans time to pick up poop in your neighbor’s yards
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