Cows

A good friend calls and shares:

“Whenever things got too hard Mom hit the couch. I see her covered in all kinds of blankets. When we got wealthier it was the hand-knitted beige throw. Before that years and years before it was the bright-red pilled one. That was the one she’d put over her shoulder to hold the parakeet when it landed.

“Looking back now I can’t believe my parents would ever have agreed to keep a parakeet in the house. Not with my father’s European spic-and-span approach. But we had guinea pigs and hamsters too. I guess young fathers can put up with all that kind of stuff.

“But we’re older parents though we have quite a few young ones left. We’re already tired and less tolerant. But we’ve learned at least this much:

“Animals live outside.

“And better not to bring home kittens or baby chicks ’cause they grow up to be cats and chickens and every time you have to heartbrokenly find a way to give them away with out too much trauma to the child.