Creatures...

Remember last Fall when I posted this?  

And a few months ago when I posted this 

{some of you thought it was a little too much information-but it's nature, right?}

Well, the other day I was sitting outside reading and heard a crash out in the yard.

One of the wild cats had chased a bird into a birdhouse on my shed

 and was literally sitting on TOP of the little house.

{Can you see him through the trees?}

she didn't like that I yelled at her...

It's hard to see in this picture, but can you see what's behind her?

That's right...nature has, in fact, taken its' course

because there are two kittens standing in the background, watching.

We never seem to have normal experiences with animals, though...

these kittens are adorable, but destined to be wild and mangy like their parents

{AS I'M TYPING THIS, there is a cat fight happening out in the yard!}

The neighbors have determined that someone dropped the original cat off..

and generations of cats have become wilder and more headstrong than the last.

I'm not really a cat person...

I like them from a distance, so it works for me 

as long as one of them doesn't come down with a nasty case of rabies.

Lately, we have quite a few of these critters, thought, too...

This one was walking across the yard the other day...

it's blurry {that's a quarter it's sitting next to}

 but it's the HUGEst beatle I've seen since 

we discovered this one in Africa...

 Kind of makes you not want to walk barefoot in the grass anymore...

The other day Emma went to the fair and came back with this:

She named it Kesh...

This morning Kesh looked like this:

Yes, that's my floor!

We didn't have a fishbowl 

{because I know we kill them}

so, she found a suitable bowl for him and left it on the counter.

{next to the pile of papers is a glass bowl where Kesh used to live}

Apparently, fish can jump to their death.

Kesh did.

The only creature that seems to survive around here is this one in that cage back there...

she's a parakeet that we purchased on a whim

{we purchased a mate for her who we found dead in his dish one morning}

She does this fabulous screeching sound when she gets all excited.

It grates on you.

But, she keeps living

and we're not sure how

because we're not exactly the best at keeping animals alive around here.

Don't get me wrong, we love animals...

but we're so stinking bad at keeping them alive.

Only the annoying ones seem to stick around...forever.

I prefer to enjoy other people's animals

and the ones that roam in the yard at a distance.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

     Cecil F. Alexander