Creatures of Our God and King!

Anyone who knows the Thomas' knows that we love God's creatures -- furry, feathered and otherwise -- and there's usually a collection of something residing with us at any given time. It seems that Sarah has inherited her mother's gene for "creature rescuing." I was always finding something that needed rescuing -- caterpillars, birds, toads, chipmunks, hairless cats, etc. (Yeah, that hairless cat thing wasn't too fun. I ended up getting rabies shots.)

About a month ago, Sarah was stomping around in the woods behind our house after we had received several days of rain. She discovered some puddles in which the tree frogs had laid their eggs, and now there were little tadpoles swimming around in them. Being that they were shrinking puddles, she realized that within 24 hours, the water would be gone, so she scooped up as many little tadpoles as she could to save them from impending doom. We've now had them for several weeks, and it has been great fun watching them grow. At the end of last week, they had all sprouted their back legs, so we found a pond and released them back into their habitat. We are thankful for the opportunity to observe God's creation close up!

Some of Sarah's tadpoles

Sarah, proud to have saved a few!

This is Jackson (General Jackson, that is) who is Sarah's charge until we figure out where he needs to go. We often joke that there is an animal underground in which word has gotten out that the Thomas' give out free food, free vet care and unlimited affection if you just show up! One day last week, I was sitting outside weeding in my landscape, when I heard sniffing sounds from behind me. I turned around and saw this sweet, little dog. I briefly pet him, but didn't give him any attention other than that in hopes that he would go home. Wherever home was, he wasn't interested in returning there. He wandered around outside of our house all day, looking in the doors, running up for affection if anyone went outside for anything, and finally taking up residence on our patio beneath a lounge chair. It was hot as blazes outside, and he was panting pretty hard, so the decision was made to let him come in for a little bit. Well, a little bit has turned into almost two weeks. We have made phone calls, searched the lost and found on the Internet, and diligently looked for flyers advertising a lost dog, but have come up empty-handed. In the next day or two, we will be posting flyers in hopes of finding his family. He is a very, very sweet, docile, and obedient dog! If anyone reading this is interested in adopting little Jackson, give us a holler!

We had some strong storms move through here a few days ago. That evening, the kids were taking the dogs out when they discovered this little fella on our sidewalk. We were wondering why the mockingbirds were attacking us whenever we went out the front door! We scooped him up knowing that there are 6 cats who visit our house each night, and we didn't want him to become kitty fodder. He snuggled up in the nest we made for him and didn't make a peep until the sun came up the next morning, at which time he let us know he was hungry and NOW! We fed him a diet of worms and berries which kept him satisfied until I was able to run to PetSmart to get some baby bird food. While we were nursing this little guy, the kids found his sibling on the sidewalk the next day.

Birdie #2

Both birdies were very content to snuggle together. Sarah and I fed them a highly nutritious powder that you mix with water until it's thin enough that you can suck it up with a pipette. They were very vocal about letting us know when they were hungry, and they eagerly gulped the mixture down.

I did some research on the Internet and learned that the old saying about birds rejecting their young if humans touch them is a myth. That being the case, we decided that we would try to get them back up into their nest. The momma and poppa were still hanging around the nest and attacking us, so it was definitely worth a try.

An inspection of the nest revealed that it had been damaged in the storm, which could be why they were on the ground. We made them a makeshift nest out of a Cool-Whip bowl, and tied it up in the tree by the original nest. Here is Tom placing the birdies in the "nest" after he had secured it to the trunk of the tree.

Within the hour of placing them back up in the tree, the parents were feeding them proving that they will take care of them, even if they've been touched by humans.

The next day, the babies were down on the ground again! We let them be and observed them marching around, spreading their wings wide, and then running for cover under a bush. The parents were aware of where they were at all times and were still feeding them, so we're letting nature be. I read that they are learning to find food on the ground for themselves, and they should be airborne within a few days. We hope so, because the cats are permanent fixtures around here! We are doing our part to help momma and poppa mockingbird by keeping all of the cats well fed. Above, you can see Smokey in the left of the picture. She's a feral cat that lies around on our deck as long as there is shade, and sits right in front of our French doors when she wants to be fed. She looks like our family pet, but we can't get near her. (We know she's a female because we trapped her and got her fixed after we saw her with a litter of kittens. She was nasty while we held her captive! Hissy! Hissy! We fixed her kitties too and adopted them all out.)

Stay tuned for the next critter adventure!