Menagerie

 Life’s priorities change when you get old. I called my 81-year-old brother who has been homebound for 5 years as a double-amputee diabetic.  He asked me to hold on a minute.  The stray dog that wandered over to their house was hungry and needed to be fed.  And the stray cat that his wife hauled to the vet where she spent $200 to have its ear infection treated was also there.  The cat, which they call Catter, always wants to watch the dog eat.  And, of course, afterward, the cat wants to be fed.  And the birds!  The birds are emptying the bird feeder every other day.  “It’s like Grand Central Station,” he said.  So, I hung on until they cared for their menagerie.

 I informed him that they aren’t the only ones who feel the pressure.  I told him I have started feeding the  rabbits that live under our deck. I even had to rescue a bunny that fell into our window well. So, now I chop up a carrot, peel off a leaf or two of lettuce and leave it on the deck for them.  And, then there are the birds, the squirrels and the mice. We have a bird feeder out back that I have been able to hang from a limb so the squirrels can’t get it, and another outside our kitchen window I built for my wife on Mother’s Day.  I mounted it on a pole which I greased to dissuade the squirrels. Those critters can empty a bird feeder before you know it.  And the mice. When I went to retrieve the sack of bird seed from our shed it had a hole in the bottom where the mice have been gorging themselves in secluded safety.

 When we were working and raising children, we did well to feed the family cat.  We didn’t have time to notice these wild and roaming creatures.  I assume they would get along just fine without us.  But it brings us pleasure to help them out with a few scraps, some bird seed and a little attention here and there.

 Since we moved to Colorado, we have made an annual pilgrimage to Estes Park to view the elk in the fall.  They come ambling out of the woods into scattered clearings, the bull elk’s bugle call echoing through the canyons.  They make themselves at home, not just in the open spaces, but on the golf course and in the streets.  One bull elk walked into a store and sniffed the merchandise.  Once we were delayed while the local police directed traffic through a herd that blocked the road.

 It is humbling to realize that we are but one species of God’s marvelous creation.  These animals, and millions more, have occupied this earth and survived for eons.

 According to Genesis, God takes pleasure in all of his creation and allows us to have a part in it.   “Then God said, ‘Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”  … God made the animals of the earth according to their kind, and the livestock according to their kind, and everything that crawls on the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good,” (Genesis 1:20-25).