Ode to Animals

From the beautifully colored brown sparrow happily grabbing a seed in his beak, featured at the left, to the unmistakably sad and lonely eyes of my newest dog friend, Thompson, at the right, today's blog posting is in honor of the survival of all of the many species of animals in my life.

Some animals, like my friend's contented kitty with the unbreakable stare, to the left, have recovered from their earlier traumas and seemingly have it easy in this life.
The cat had been found several years ago, caught in a hay baler, and apparently barely escaped death. She hides from people most of the time, but I was able to snap this picture of her before she ran away again.

Others, like this feral cat spotted hungrily devouring a rotten tomato at my birdfeeder area, risk being seen to survive.

We've been trying to coax him in with tidbits and the standard "kitty kitty" talk, but so far he has stayed out of sight when we're outside.

Our resident groundhog, Mr. Groundy, at the left, made it through last winter, his hide still scarred from last fall's attack by our dog.

Rebounding from his war wounds, once again he has been seen in the evenings munching on sunflower seedlings and leftover birdseed.

We keep our dog much closer now, and everyone watches our for the wildlife when we're out in the yard.

We especially watch that our bevy of red squirrels doesn't become lunch for our already overfed cats either.

The adorable character to the right we named "Needles the Squirrel", for his pointy little nose. He and his squirrel buddies make short work of the sunflower seeds I put out in the window feeder every day, which keeps me busy refilling it for the other wildlife that come in to feed.

We've only let our cats out once or twice this Spring, and they ran back to the door each time, terrified of the many outdoor sounds and sights. Oh well!

We'd rather protect some of our other animal friends as well, like this fantastic bird to the left, Mr. Cardinal.

Everytime we see him at the birdfeeder area, the binoculars are grabbed and the camera readied. His coloration and features are so striking that I can't get enough of seeing him.

Once I saw a bluejay harassing him, but he has persisted and now appears to possibly have a nest somewhere nearby with Mrs. Cardinal, to the right.

She has been looking unusually plump these days, and may be about to lay a couple of eggs.

I think it's amazing how tenacious all of my animal friends are, and so today I honor their strength and courage.

They're all my heroes!