Neighborhood Update.

Well, amazingly there was no big trouble with all that wind. Unless you count Caroline crying like a great big baby at Mom's door. Mom let her in, but that only lasted about a minute. I guess Caroline kept stepping on Mom's "delicate" parts and suddenly Caroline was out in the hall again. Secretly I was glad because if anyone should be allowed to be with Mom at night it should be me. At least I know where not to be putting my little footies.

This morning we were so sure we'd find lots of limbs down from our two giant old trees but Mom said there was just the usual collection of broken-off dead branches and twigs. Out back, the wind had tipped over a little potted geranium and scattered the seed from the bird feeders, but Mom checked all around the big cypress trees and told me that no, there were no lost eggs or nests on the ground. That was a big relief to both of us.

Mom told me a story once about a little bird family that wasn't so lucky in a wind like that. It happened a long time ago, like two of my lifetimes ago. Mom was hunting. When she went to her car to go to lunch, she first saw the nest hanging by a thread, too far on the end of a branch to have withstood the gusts. Then she saw the mom bird calling, calling, calling. Mom found two little eggs, fallen to the ground, the poor little family lost. I thought that was so sad, so that's why we were so worried.

But–no broken eggs or fallen nests and no tiny birds, so it was good!

On the boyfriend front, Caroline's Mr. Blue Bell hasn't been around in ages. We're not sure why not. Even though he makes a pest of himself, we hope he's doing OK. Maybe those people who live with him realized that it's so much safer to let him stay inside. Maybe he got a hoo-ha-ectomy and is recuperating. Or maybe he realized what a great big baby my sister is sometimes.

And you know what else? The purple pincushion plant Mom got us last year has two great big old flower heads on it already! Any day now all my butterfly friends will be back and soon after my pet preying mantises. I can't wait!