Baby possums, baby quail.

It must indeed be Spring, even though the temperatures are more like Summer. The bluebirds and barn swallows have already laid eggs in their nests and the wildlife mothers are taking their young ones for tours of the fields.

When I went for my walk yesterday, one of the neighbors was outside and gave me a pamphlet on wildlife rescue. She got the pamphlets a few days ago when she brought two baby possums to the rescue location. The mama possum was run over by a car near her property and there were the babies, staying right close to their lifeless mother while the vultures were just a couple of feet away. Our neighbor scooped up the babies and let the vultures take care of the mama.

So what was she going to do with the babies? When wildlife creatures are that small, they almost never survive without their mothers unless you truly know what to feed them and how to take care of them, which she didn't. She checked the Internet and found the wildlife rescue organization in the next town, and brought the possum babies over there. Her other alternative, she said, would have been to drown the babies, which she thought would have been less horrible than having them eaten by the vultures or a snake. She was happy to have found that particular organization and was handing out their pamphlets to everyone she sees. (I was happy to know that not all of the neighbors resort to their rifles and use wildlife for target practice. Bad karma, that.)

The quail..... for the past week or so, we've been seeing young quail around the yard. One at first, then two, and there were four out there just this morning. Sweet Pea was outside and saw the quail as well, and I saw that he was stalking them so I ran outside and called him. Sweet Pea stopped and turned to look at me when he heard his name, and I could swear the expression on his face seemed to say "You're kidding me, right?!"

Sweet Pea didn't move to come towards me, but he didn't move towards the quail, either, so he gets special Brownie points for that one. I went down the porch steps while I had his attention and I just scooped him up and carried him into the house so the quail could go on their way. I never realized how pretty those birds are.... all shades of brown, with little white spots here and there, and they make teeny little coo-ing sounds. The quail here seem to just follow our chickens around the yard. Maybe they know that where the chickens are, food is sure to be.

Just another excuse to keep Sweet Pea and Mickey in the house: I don't want them to capture the quail. I will have to remember that the next time my husband says It's a beautiful day... why are Sweet Pea and Mickey inside? My answer will be that I'm protecting the wildlife so we don't screw up the wildlife exemption on our property. Makes purr-fect sense to me.