My Little Man

Well today is my birthday. Once again I had another post planned. But the universe had different plans. Instead I'd like to talk about a defining moment in a boy's life.

As you know we recently lost our cat. We've become more and more convinced our kitty was taken by a coyote. My children were (and are) devastated. My fourteen-year-old son has been caught in that in-between place of still being a little boy at heart but also feeling that he should act like and be a man. His little boy heart was broken. He tried to hide his tears but a mama sees. Today, as a man, he took his air-soft gun and went coyote huntin'.

Mama didn't have the heart to stop him. She knew he needed to sow his oats and figured he'd never come across a coyote. Mama was wrong. He found a den - two babies waiting for their mama to come home.

He called me, my son, and asked what he should do (to be honest he wanted to talk to his papa but papa wasn't home). "Leave 'em be." I said. That coyote was just trying to feel her young. She might have killed our dear kitty but she did not have malice in her heart.

The boy, my boy, came home an hour later. "What did you do?" I asked.

"I couldn't do it, " he said, "there were babies."

I closed my eyes. "You're a good man." I replied, "a good man".

And indeed he is. We miss our cat greatly. Our chickens will not be free-ranging for quite a while. Our remaining kitties will be spending a lot more time indoors. We love our animals immensely. And we love *all* animals immensely.

I hope our resident coyote moves along soon. In the meantime we'll take the proper precautions.

Good job little man. Good job!

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