Tiger

 Hello Andrew!

          I love, love, LOVE writing letters to you. Do you know why? It’s because when I’m writing I’m thinking about your handsome face and it eases the ache in my heart from missing you so much, that’s why!

          Tiger!

          Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!

          That cat!

          Do you know what he did? He caught a beautiful little bird. I’m sure he was going to eat it but I didn’t let him. Since the yellow finch was still alive, I made Tiger turn it lose and it flew away. Boy-oh-boy! Was Tiger mad at me!

          Then he chased a chipmunk up a little tree.

           I don’t even know if cats eat chipmunks. But it was this little guy’s lucky day because I made Tiger go in the house until the chipmunk ran away.

          Then we caught Tiger stalking a snapping turtle.

          “If he bites him, he won’t let go!” Pap-pap warned me. So I picked Tiger up and made him go in the house.

          That silly snapper climbed up our gravel pile!

           “Is it going to lay eggs?” Pap-pap asked me.

          “I don’t know,” I said.

          “I don’t want snappers around here!”

          So, the next day, when the turtle was gone, Pap-pap took a shovel and dug in the pile looking for snapping turtle eggs. But he didn’t find any.

          I bet you’re thinking that Tiger is a big troublemaker, aren’t you. Catching birds, chasing poor little chipmunks into trees, and even taking on a snapper! But Tiger is just a cat and doing the things that cats do. The first rule of catkingdom is, if it runs — chase it!

          This is the time of year when the fawns are born. I’m sure you know that ‘fawn’ is the word for a baby deer. Pap-pap was mowing down by the pond and he scared a tiny little new-born speckled fawn from his hiding place.

          “Where was it’s mama?” you ask.

          The mama deer, or a doe, leaves her fawn in a safe place all day while she goes and feeds. She’ll come back and nurse her baby.

          “But if Pap-pap scared the baby away, how will the mother find it?” you wanna know.

          Does are very good at finding their babies, even if they’re not in the same spot where they left them. Sometimes though, when the danger is past, the baby will come back to the same spot his mother left him.

           “Peg!” Pap-pap called me. “Come look at this deer.”

          Down at our pond was a big doe and she was just standing there for the longest time.

          “Do you think it’s the mother of the baby I scared out yesterday?” he asked.

          “I don’t know,” I said.

          We got the binoculars and when I looked, guess what I saw? “There’s a bird on her head!” I exclaimed.

        Sometimes animals work together to the benefit of both of them. In this case, the Red-winged Blackbird was getting an easy meal, and the doe was being rid of ticks!

           For the most part the doe stood still, but once in a while the bird would get spooked and fly off.

          But he kept coming back until he had all the ticks picked from her face.

          I never saw a bird sit on a deer’s ear before!

          And with that, we shall call this one done!

          Andrew, never forget that you are in my heart.

          I love you to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond!