Aren’t they cute?

This column originally ran in the March 5, 2005 edition of the Daily Mail.

There is nothing quite as appealing or cute as a very young animal or fowl.

We are blessed with many opportunities this time of year to see this miracle unfold.

Each year we enjoy watching our Canada Geese as they fight to maintain our pond for their exclusive nesting spot, and see the alertness with which the gander protects his lady during the incubation period.

When she leaves the nest for food, water or whatever reason he seems overjoyed to swim over to her as they enjoy some “quality time” together. When she goes back to the nest in a few minutes he continues his vigil. He is never very far from the nest and will come immediately if anyone approaches or he hears any commotion from the goose.

The day before Lester and I left to lead an Elderhostel in eastern Missouri we knew that the eggs were about ready to hatch. We didn’t need to look at the eggs. We could tell by the movements and excitement shown by the parents. A phone call home the next day confirmed that indeed six fuzzy little goslings were now swimming around in the pond between their parents.

Before we returned home, the parents had walked the babies over to Dorothy Tyer’s pond where they stayed for several days.

Yesterday, to our delight, they came back for a visit and stayed with us for almost the full day. The six goslings had grown enough to even show some slight signs of wings forming through the yellow fluff. Today we have not spotted our family. They may have gone to a larger pond on the neighboring farm, but there is already a pair nesting there. I don’t know how they will get along if that is their destination.

Each year this process is repeated and when the goslings become almost grown they return here. This is a mixed blessing because the eight birds can leave a large number of calling cards. But they later disappear when the young ones can fly and the parents have molted and received their new feathers.

Thankfully this year we don’t have any baby kittens. There is nothing cuter, but we don’t need any more cats here. The four we have will not reproduce. But we do think there may be some baby squirrels in our Oak trees.

The young of songbirds are not too attractive until they are nearly ready to leave the nest. We don’t bother them when they are in that stage because it interferes with the parents. When they begin to try to fly I try to be vigilant about keeping our cats occupied elsewhere. It doesn’t always work, of course, and even though our four are well fed they can’t resist the urge to hunt.

We have at least one possum that likes to visit our enclosed porch where the older cats sleep and eat (under a heat lamp when it is cool). I imagine it has some babies in the pouch but I’m not about to investigate that. I have given up trying to shoo it away from the cat’s room because all it does is sull down and look ugly.

It leaves on its own after it eats some of the dry food. The cats watch it but don’t seem perturbed by its presence, so if they are willing to share I think I’ll leave it alone also. But I don’t want it to bring its babies in for a snack.

Human babies of course are the cutest-especially if they are someone else’s. I am a firm believer in God’s plan to not have middle age plus women have babies. At this age we can just enjoy all the little ones of nature, but not get personally involved.