Little Miss is now attending college (WHAT!!), vibrantly running a world of drunkards/agriculture students and dorm life. Besides minute visits from our son and his friends, Mr. Man and I are most definitely Empty Nesters.
Many things have happened over the last few years, and, as a new stage in my life has begun, others have encouraged me to write again.
***
Looking back at our homeschool days, we certainly embraced Lil's love of animals: dogs, cats, a rabbit, fish, a painted turtle, a collection of crayfish, one dead squirrel, and two Pekin Ducks. I finally enrolled her in our local 4-H program, where she worked with horses and beef cattle and made a significant number of pies.
"One dead squirrel?" you say.
I got a call from Lil' at work one day, quite distraught. She had found a dead squirrel floating in the kiddie pool and was wondering what to do with it. Our neighbours were always around to help, and of course, her older brother, but with the thought of someone else taking control she was determined to manage it herself.
"You'll have to throw it over the back fence," I said, wondering if my colleagues were listening, "Use the shovel."
She agreed with the suggestion but not before she admitted the whole story.
"I tried to save it, you know, by breathing into it."
What?!
"I didn't get too close, just enough to blow at its mouth."
"Oh, okay." Good Grief. We had already been through a rabies scare with another squirrel and a baby field mouse. I'd hoped she learned.
As she continued the story, I couldn't help but smile as her heart shone through. She had taken her red plastic shovel, scooped the poor squirrel out of the pool, and laid it on the ground. An 'expert' at CPR, she pressed up and down on its tiny chest with the shovel, in hopes to get its heart going again. She blew at its mouth by leaning over the shovel.
And, after giving up as an animal paramedic, she called me.
And then, of course, I told everybody. They had all listened in any way.
Later, Little Miss was proud to tell me she'd stood at the back fence and offered a blessing, giving the squirrel a proper send-off as she finally tossed it over.
