i learned something this week.  we’re in what’s known as the windy season out here in the wild west, and when i say windy, i mean winds that can knock a human clean over.  on thursday and friday we had a genuine wind storm that blew so hard and so long and shook the house with such force that we all thought we were on our way to oz.  (note:  order ruby slippers post haste)  what i learned is that if you’re not careful, the wind can blow your heart away.

the gal and dog went out early thursday morning for dog’s doodahs, and found five sparrow chicks on the ground beneath their nest.  gal scooped them up quick and put them back in the nest.  then she checked on them an hour later and the nest was empty.  the middle of howling gale is no time to be tiny with feathers, and the gal assumed that they had blown all over the yard.  she spent all day looking for them.  she even got dog to put his nose to work in the search, but all she found was disappointment.  then she got on the interweb and looked up baby sparrows and learned that these chicks were at the age to leave the nest.  the site said, “leave them alone, the mom and dad know where they are and will take care of them.”

and that’s when gal smiled and lost it.  “ah ha!” she proclaimed, “i was worried for no reason.  nature is in charge! and that means that mr. and mrs. sparrow must be able to track the chicks even though they are wind-tossed like milkweed seeds.  and somehow the parental sparrows will be able to protect the chicks from the myriad predators in the yard and sky who know where to look for a meal of flappy-snacks.  and somehow nature has a plan for keeping those tiny peeps warm through their first night out of the nest when the temperature drops to 30 degrees.”  gal seemed relieved as she watched the parents bustling everywhere until the sun went down, then she came inside and declared, “nature sucks.  mother nature is a bitch who doesn’t care who lives or dies.  those chicks left the nest like lemmings going off a cliff or whales beaching on the sand.  they aren’t ready to be out of the nest, but mother bitch damn nature threw a switch in their brains and without asking any questions or packing an overnight bag, they leapt into the open maw of uncertainty.  what the hell!  and now momma bird will lay another clutch and start it all over again.  shit shit shitty shit shitterson!” she cried.

i didn’t know what to say.  nature isn’t pretty, and i should know; that was my world before the gal brought me inside and taught me to eat kibble instead of mice.  heck, when i brought her the hind quarters of a rabbit for her birthday last year, she nearly fainted.  was i supposed to call a florist?  bake a cake?  i did what nature taught me to do, and i was mighty proud of that gift.  my poor gal is sweet as clover, but she has a warped sense of how things work outside the walls of the house.  out there, no one is safe, no one is special, food is food even when it’s still alive, and wishing it were otherwise won’t make it so.  evenso, it was a rough week for us all, because now our kibble has been replaced with rice puffs and tofu tots.  yeeeesh.  purr, y’all.