All Creatures Great and Small

One great thing about our family is the way that everyone loves animals.  Last night, as I was going out to the car to get a few things, I noticed a toad hopping across the garden in front of the front porch.  Madeleine had been hanging out by the door talking to me, so I snatched the toad up, brought him over for Madeleine to see, gently set him back on the ground, washed unspeakable stuff off my hands, and got on with the evening.  But by the time I got upstairs to put the kids to bed, Daniel asked me why I didn't show him the toad that Madeleine had seen.

This morning, as we were setting out for the kids' school, Ian noticed a caterpillar on the hood of the car.  Needless to say, we got out the first chance we got - the small parking lot of a local apple orchard - and I removed the caterpillar and put it safely on the grass.  Ian stopped to provide the caterpillar with some kind of food - probably of the leaf variety.

This evening, as I picked Madeleine up from her Russian Math class, she pointed out a "beautiful pigeon" at the edge of the parking lot.  I had never heard "beautiful" and "pigeon" in the same phrase before. 

But best of all, Madeleine announced to me sometime last week, that she had seen an ant in the bathroom, so of course she did the only thing a decent person would do at that point:  she fed it.

(May, 2015)