Who says we have no pets?!

My children are desperate for a pet.  I am the "mean" mom who continues to say "nope".  Dog?  "Tried that, no." Cat? "I don't like them much and I think litter boxes can too easily make for smelly houses."  Lizard? "creepy", Bird?  "too noisy", gold fish? "they die too easily", an aquarium? "a huge investment to get off the ground, etc. etc.

I have my plate full, no doubt.  We are adding a fourth child.  I just don't have the reserve for a pet right now.  I don't have plants, either.  We barely keep on top of our lawn and paid a Landscaper to re do our front berms so they were as low maintenance as possible.  I am quite sure it's a miracle, I feed my children three times a day and manage to remember to clip their finger nails and bathe them.  I don't think I could keep anything else alive right now.

I have a feeling, however, that God is answering my children's prayers without negating mine.  We have a yard full of animals that are getting a bit too familiar!  First, there is our cardinal; yes, he is still here.  We though we had rid ourselves of the nuisance.  I borrowed my parents dog for two week (yes, borrowed- I'm not heartless to my children's please;) so the kids could enjoy him.  Jack is a great, older dog who still has energy but is obedient and calm with the kids.  The cardinal ran for the hills....and stay away for almost two weeks after Jack went back home, but he's been here since.   He still pecks away at our windows.  When I blogged in April, I hadn't managed to get a picture...he'd fly away when I came near the window.  But he's gotten a little bolder, a little more comfortable...so let me officially introduce you to Birdie.

Birdie is not alone in thinking we have a fun yard to reside in.  We have a DOE that sleeps in our front yard from time to time- curls up just like a puppy dog.  We have 12 Turkeys...10 of them babies.  We have so many bunnies hoppin' around, you'd think we grew wild carrots.  We have multiple deer and birds that pass through.  Marc even found a snake at the side of our house, though I pretend that never happened so that I can continue to live here myself.  Who needs a zoo?  We apparently could make our own "we bought a zoo" movie!

We have an apple tree.  I don't even know what kind of apples they are, they've always gotten eaten before we managed to pick them.  For a couple years I've assumed deer ate them.  I was WRONG;)  Recently we opened our shed.  We don't really use our shed.  We have a barn/garage thing on our property where we store our mower, toys, etc.  SOMEONE has been sleeping our our shed;)  SOMEONE has been storing up for winter!

ALL the apples from our tree are certainly right here.  Let me just say, this mess wasn't originally like this...he/she has pushed stuff into a bunch to "hide" the apples.  It is an amazing showing or resourcefulness.  From a red tailed SQUIRREL...we suspect he may have roommates.  Hey- maybe we'll have baby squirrels next springs.  It's supposed to be harsh winter and we all know there's a baby boom when folks are snowed in;)

I suppose a responsible homeowner would deal with the mess and kick our these squatters.  WE took a photo and locked the shed right back up.  We don't need it and hard work should be rewarded- our apple tree is 50 feet away from this shed.  This is amazing, especially to two humans who haven't made it to the gym more than 10 times the entire year; we don't have the heart to kick them out.

Perhaps our "heart" is going to be the end of us...we'll draw the line if they try to get into our house- promise!