For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to nature and especially animals. All shapes, sizes and kinds… doesn’t matter… even frogs and bugs! And, honestly, I don’t think that is a coincidence…. Think it is something we all should have inside of us that God put there. Some more than others maybe, or maybe some just ignore it or cover it up with other worldly things. Afterall, He created animals to be our helpers and companions –
The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” –Genesis 2:18
God also tells us in His word, that He speaks to us through His creation, including His animals –
The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. – Psalm 19:1-4
We are even told His creation bears witness to Himself – so that none are without excuse –
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:20
He even tells us that the animals will teach and instruct us!
Just ask the animals, and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you. Let the fish in the sea speak to you. For they all know that my disaster has come from the hand of the LORD. For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of every human being. Job 12:7-10
So, I make no apologies for being a nature and animal lover!
From an early age, I have many memories of being at my Granny and Papaw’s farm trying to catch the chickens or tame the many stray wild cats that would find their way to their farm and call it home. They usually also had some cows, pigs, mule, etc, as well and my Papaw even raised pheasants and quail, so there were always animals to watch, catch and play with.
My Granny, in particular, was an animal lover as well. She would take time to notice and admire the wildlife that shared their farm as their home. I remember her telling me once that she had noticed a praying mantis in the same area on their grape vines that grew along the fence near the old smoke house. She commented to my Papaw that she believed it was the same one she saw each day and he told he thought that was silly – it couldn’t be the same one. So, she set out to prove her theory and she put a dot of nail polish on its back one day to mark it so she would recognize it… and sure enough she was seeing the same fella in the grape vines day after day.
One summer she noticed a small tree frog just outside their house living in a knothole in the apple tree that held the small
treehouse we had played in as youngsters. So, she broke of a straw from her broom, caught a fly and placed it on the end of the straw and held it up in front of the tiny frog. He quickly whipped out his tiny sticky tongue and snatched it right up! So, we had fun all summer feeding the little tree frog and I am sure he was thankful for the easy meals! To the best of my memory, he returned for several summers to the knothole in the apple tree – smart guy!
This love and admiration for all things furry or feathered and even crawly or creepy stuck with me into adulthood where God was wonderful enough to bring a fella into my life with the same appreciation of God’s creation. Even before we were married, we went camping all the time and were enjoying animals in our lives almost daily in one way or another.
treehouse we had played in as youngsters. So, she broke of a straw from her broom, caught a fly and placed it on the end of the straw and held it up in front of the tiny frog. He quickly whipped out his tiny sticky tongue and snatched it right up! So, we had fun all summer feeding the little tree frog and I am sure he was thankful for the easy meals! To the best of my memory, he returned for several summers to the knothole in the apple tree – smart guy! Me feeding the tree frog
This love and admiration for all things furry or feathered and even crawly or creepy stuck with me into adulthood where God was wonderful enough to bring a fella into my life with the same appreciation of God’s creation. Even before we were married, we went camping all the time and were enjoying animals in our lives almost daily in one way or another.
So, from then on, if we had the wood door open, some of them would climb through the hole and help themselves to the basket of peanuts we kept sitting by the door. Once, we were sitting in the living room and a mama squirrel came in, got a peanut and then proceeded to check out the living room area for a place to bury it. She hoped up in one of my potted plants, dug a hole, placed the peanut in the hole, covered it back up and patted it down nicely and then went to the basket to get another peanut to take out with her. It was so funny to watch! And then, there were the raccoons…. a large family of them that would visit nightly with their adorable little masked youngsters with them. We would save table scraps, etc, to feed to them. I can still hear Louis in the middle of the night saying “coons are here” as he jumped out of bed and headed down the steps in his undies to open the door and feed them.
Once we bought our first home, we continued the tradition with the animals that lived around us in our neighborhood. We had squirrels that would eat out of our hands on the front porch rail, cardinals that would come and sit on the window sill outside the kitchen to let me know they would like a nut. There was a family of wrens that nested in my ferns on our back porch I had to be careful of when watering them and mocking birds that would follow us around the back yard asking for peanut butter.
During this phase in our lives, we had a vet in town that knew we loved animals and he would call us when people would bring him orphaned animals such as baby squirrels and raccoons. Louis built a rather large cage to house them in our back yard and it seems we always have some animals coming and going. We bottle-fed them, and cared for them as best we could in substitution for the mamas they had lost and then released them back into the wild.
Being lovers of wildlife and nature, city life was not for us so we moved out into the woods into a log home where we had even more animals in our daily lives. Deer right in the front yard including young fawns, many varieties of birds including humming birds, turkeys, foxes, opossum, chipmunks, ground hogs, squirrels of course and even nocturnal flying squirrels and the occasional skunk and coyote… all made visits to our yard on a regular basis. We even had bats and one in particular that would hang on the ceiling of the side porch in the summer evenings as he took breaks from his nightly feeding sessions.
He did this for many years and was still coming even once we moved away. People used to ask why we didn’t shoo him off, and my reply was ‘Are you kidding? Do you know how many mosquitoes he eats each night?!’ (up to 8,000 per night!!)
We have now been married going on 37 years, and whether domestic or wild, animals have always been a part of our lives together. We have rescued squirrels, ducks, deer, turtles, opossum, ground hogs and various birds over the Trevor and Tobias years. We have had dogs, cats, fish and even rats in the house as pets – yes RATS! (They are wonderful pets! ) We were extremely blessed to add horses to our lives many years ago as well. In the recent years, we have also added 3 macaws to the family. Hopefully we have a lot of years left in our lives yet, and we can’t imagine living life without animals. As a matter of fact, did you know it has been proven that having animals in your life will actually add years to your life? And I would also add that they will add life to your years as well! I can only imagine how amazing and awesome it must have been living at peace with the animals in the Garden of Eden!
Soooo many fond memories, lessons and stories we can share! And, since God is moving us to a completely new area of the globe, we will have a whole long list of new animals to encounter! We have seen tapir and jaguar tracks on our new farm in Belize and spotted coatimundi, peccary, lizards that look like small dragons, agouti, toucans and many varieties of parrots. Howler monkeys have been heard near the farm as well! We look forward to all our new animal encounters and adventures! We hope you will check back with us as we share some of them and that they will encourage you to see all the blessings and lessons God has for us in His precious animals!
As I head out to feed all our furry or feathered critters – check out this awesome video! We can live with the animals close to what Adam and Eve did in Eden – if we only open our hearts to love and respect them and open our minds to learn from them and understand them.
May you be blessed with the gift of fur and feathers in your lives!
Shawn
