The Gift She Gave Me
 
When I was a little girl, I was allowed to have a fish, a turtle, some
hamsters.  And later, I had a few guinea pigs.  One of the things that
comes to my mind often is the love my mother always had for all animals.
She was remarkable.  She set me on a path I have been traveling-though at
times I lost my way:
 
the path with heart.
 
My mother made coffins, and gave eulogies, and helped us make crosses, and
we buried our beloved fish, hamsters, and our turtle in the prairie across
the street from us.  She cried at every one of those funerals.  I can still
remember how we stood there over that poor dead turtle who had disappeared
months before that she found under the couch--and she bawled like a baby.
 
When we took in a stray cat we named Tommy, he brought us half dead animals
and laid them on the porch.  Mom rushed them to the vets to save them:
every last one.
 
Finally dad came back from Europe and saw the vet bill, and said we could
not take any more animals to the vet, and he wanted Tommy out of the house.
We gave him to a neighbor about half a mile away, but Tommy ran away.
 
My Mom and I walked up and down streets and through the prairie calling his
name every night for over a week.  He came home.  And had kittens.
 
Once we found baby rats in her garden and tried to keep them alive in a
cigar box.  We had to wear gloves and keep them outside.  They were all
gone the next morning.
 
She tried saving baby birds, baby bunnies, and took in stray cats.  She
even let me have a dead bat we named Harry for a whole week as long as I
wore gloves.  I went door to door and I charged 25 cents for people to
see Harry in the box.
 
The neighbor ladies paid me even more not to come into their homes.
 
Small wonder I love ferrets.  I tell my mother that it's her fault.
 
She does not care for weasels in her old age.  She watched Baby when I had
to go to the hospital.  Baby cried loudly and bit her very hard and ran
away and got lost in her basement.  My nephew had to find her.  After that,
my Mom was afraid of being bitten.
 
So Mom smiles at the ferrets when I bring them over and talks to them.  She
just won't touch them. :-)  They love to pee in the corner of her kitchen.
I try everything else.  But they have already made up their minds that this
is the only bathroom that they will consider using.  Mom never flinches as
I clean up the mess.
 
I don't need for it to be mothers day to remember the gift she gave me:
 
She gave me my love for all living beings.
She taught me to be a care giver:
And that all life is of value.
She showed me how
to morn the loss of a "pet."
She set me on a path that nourishes my soul.
 I follow the path with heart.
 
Very Lucky,
Lisette and the zoo
[Posted in FML issue 3134]