Disturbed by Squatters

by Neva Bodin

In my last blog, you learned about the estate auction we had.  We rescued many treasures from our now unoccupied farm home. There were a number of side stories to this trying adventure. I’d like to share some.

We humans weren’t alone on the farm in ND. We interrupted the lives of many creatures who thought the farm belonged only to them. Let’s hear some of their stories…

“What do I do, what do I do?” This hadn’t happened before. I ran across the cool hard floor toward the blankets where I’d given birth just a couple days ago. Oops! A foot was in my way. I reversed direction and scurried into shadows.

“A mouse just ran up to your foot and ran away!” I heard the voice of one of the strange looking beings say. Beings I didn’t usually see on this farm.

The two beings finally left the spot, only for one to return a short while later and pick up the blanket where my babies were! Oh my…my triplets, naked and blind, rolled right out onto the cold floor! “What should I do?”

The being stood still a moment, looked around, picked my babies up and put them back on the blanket and covered them up. Then went to tell the other being.

“They were crying!” I heard the being say.

“What did they sound like?” asked the other being.

“Well, they didn’t make any noise, but I could tell because their little mouths were open!”

The beings must have been mothers too, because they didn’t do anything more, and I had time to go get all my babies and carry them one by one to a new home. I know another being sitting in a chair saw me go, so I ran very fast with that last baby in my mouth.

~~~

It seemed the perfect place. The wood was soft and a small hole was already in place. A little pecking with my perfectly pointed beak and it was big enough to squeeze through. A home for my babies. Under the roof of an old farm house. No humans around. High enough to be safe.

It was quiet as I kept those eggs warm, until they hatched! And until our wonderful animal kingdom was rudely invaded by those two-legged creatures that don’t fly. They went into the house. And while the constant squawking of my babies annoyed me, it must have annoyed them more as they pounded on the ceiling in that old house, which just happened to be the floor of my nest! Those babies didn’t stop their squawking though, not even while swallowing the bugs I brought them!

Then, when my babies finally got big enough to fly, those humans had the front door of that house open and as I chirped, “Follow me,” the babies took a sharp turn and flew right into that big house! I scolded and scolded from the big pine tree, and finally they flew back out to me, with one of those humans shouting and flapping their thin wings as if they thought they could fly too.

~~~

It was perfect and I had spent the winter there. A little big, and it smelled like chickens from long ago, but a sleeping bag and a quilt were just laying there waiting for me. There was the faint smell of dog on them. But from long ago I could tell. I rearranged them with my hands and made myself at home.

Until the humans came. They opened the door and I had to run fast under the chicken nests and do a disappearing act. But through the next four weeks, I kept an eye on those humans. Once in the early morning I was surprised by two of them standing near my building. I scrambled up the side of an old house as fast as I could, dived for the other side of the roof, but couldn’t resist peeking back at them. I suppose they saw my ears sticking up.

But I didn’t bother them, no sirree. I heard them shooting one day. I didn’t see anything to shoot at so I think they were just practicing. But, I didn’t want to be their target. Lucky I didn’t have babies around to worry about as I did one other year when they came. I had them hidden in a granary wall where they couldn’t be seen. Even though they were noisy, the humans left them be.

I wonder what the other animals who live here thought about these squatters taking over?

To be continued….