The first sure sign that we are well into the spring season around our house is the arrival of baby birds of all types, colors and sizes. In the days when we had two physically active cats and two young dogs, this was a particularly trying time for us, since we do not kill anything unless there is a good reason to do so, nor do we wantonly allow anything harmless and beautiful or beneficial to be killed if we can help it.
Even critters that help themselves to our garden are welcome, to a certain extent. I already had my first picking from my strawberries, and since I lost a lot of my plants because of the heat last year, I only anticipate having one more picking; that will come in a couple of days. But this weekend I have sat on my porch and watched robins gathering bits of the bright fruit, as well as worms and other bugs from around the plants, and return to their nests in the trees surrounding the house to feed these treats to their young ones. I just don't have the heart to run them off, and I don't really mind sharing.
Since we are down to one old cat who is blind in one eye and can no longer move as fast as he once could, and two older, more sedate German Shepherds, it is a little easier to protect the baby birds on the ground as they learn to fly. The cat does not even seem to notice them anymore, and the dogs are actually minding me this year when I tell them to leave the little fluttering things alone. I can, however, tell it is just about all they can stand to obey that command, but they do it.
There are, of course, an abundance of critters we do not want and are not willing to tolerate. We did have water moccasins move in with the flooding earlier in the year. We do not kill the tiny rock, garter and pine snakes that live here pretty much every year because they eat insects and rodents and don't really pose any danger to anyone. But those poisonous snakes fall under the category of "gotta go."
There has been a lot of hoopla in the national media lately about the impending arrival of one of the most familiar harbingers of summer. This year, the 13-year cicadas will appear in great numbers in certain parts of the country, and we are at ground zero for that event. They were to begin appearing in mid-May in some places south of here, and we should be finding their hollow, empty shells on trees and other surfaces here very soon. The singing of the cicadas in the trees on a summer evening as they try to attract their soul mate is one of the things most people remember most fondly as they look back on their lives.
A bug we are experiencing right now in great numbers that is not warm and fuzzy is that pesky biting humped-back gnat, commonly called a buffalo gnat. Those things feed on the blood of humans and animals, just like mosquitoes, and will generally bite in the nostrils, ears and will actually crawl through your hair to bite your scalp. The good thing is, they only come out during the day and can be repelled with the same pesticides that repel mosquitoes. The bad thing is, expect mosquitoes to begin making their appearance soon in the evenings, and we can expect them in record numbers this year because of the flooding. One more thing about gnats. Their bite is not only much worse than that of a mosquito; they can actually kill small animals and poultry by producing an allergic shock if they bite in larger numbers. I have a hard knot right behind my ear where I was bitten by one, and some of their bites actually bleed. It is a good idea if your kids are playing outside right now, or if you have outside dogs or cats, to take precautions to protect them from these biting bugs.
And, of course, I just can't end this week's column without saying something about the ridiculous end of days prediction that did not occur this Saturday. I was particularly impressed by the fact that the national media, instead of making a great circus of the prediction, handled it by having Biblical scholars explain why no one can predict the coming of the kingdom of God. The end of the world and the second coming of Christ could happen at any time; it cannot be predicted, and only God knows that date and hour. Not even Christ, as God's Son, knows when it will occur. I do not feel sorry for the folks who gave up everything because of this prediction, because they were adults and should have done some investigating and actually READ THE BIBLE before giving up all their assets.
And speaking of the end of days, one more thing just must be said. It is time for former Blytheville Mayor Barrett Harrison to give it up. Shame, shame on him for trying to pass the blame for all this missing money onto a hard-working city employee who barely makes enough money to get by and take care of her family. It is time now for you to do the right thing -- man up, fess up, and take what you have coming to you. Even Al Capone could not beat the IRS, and you are no Al Capone.
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