animals

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Dear Jack: A Righteous Man Cares for the Needs of His Animals

4 years, 10 months.

Dear Jack: A Righteous Man Cares for His Animals

Dear Jack,

Saturday afternoon you slept hard for three hours while Mommy and I watched the movie Unbroken in the bonus room.

During the middle of it, I snuck in your bedroom to check on you and discovered such a sweet sight: You were cuddled up tightly with Bongo, your stuffed animal monkey.

Not to mention, your bed is always full of your zoo of all your other stuffed animals, which even includes an anteater.

After you woke up later in the afternoon, I took you to the Spring Hill Ham Festival, where you were able to pet (very tame!) farm animals; including a sheep, goat, cow, chicken, duck, rabbit, and a pair of pigs.

Dear Jack: We Rode in a Real Monster Truck at the Spring Hill Ham Festival!

I loved how unreserved you were when approaching the animals to softly pet them. I don’t know that I myself would have trusted them not to attack me.

This video I made includes some footage of you with the animals:

But your calm spirit assured them you were only there to nurture them, not to scare them.

I just recently became aware of a verse in the Bible that made me think of you:

Proverbs 12:10 says this:

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animals.

You love animals. You treat them like babies.

Literally, you wrap them up in blankets and take them with you wherever we go.

With that being said, I don’t see our family getting an actual real life pet any time soon. Our busy lifestyle and schedule would likely lead to not being able to show the pet enough affection and attention.

However, we can definitely enjoy everyone else’s pets and animals.

You are definitely built to care for others and to be a leader. It’s what is in your heart.

I believe you will always find a way to take care of others, especially those younger than you.

Love,

Daddy

1 Comment Posted on parenting, Storytelling, vegan

Dear Jack: You Saved a Cricket, I Saved a Possum

4 years, 8 months. 

Dear Jack,

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Yesterday morning as I was driving you to school, you shared your thoughts with me:

“Daddy, if everybody was vegan and vegetarian, then the animals wouldn’t have to die.”

With a statement like that, an outsider might assume I brainwash you daily with those sorts of thoughts.

But that’s not how I believe in parenting you. I sincerely want you to come to your own conclusions, based on daily observations, regarding the reasons why our family doesn’t eat meat.

I don’t feed you information like this- I only explain it after you think to ask these questions on your own first.

Your epiphany was all your own crafting.

After all, you are truly an animal lover; or at least a stuffed animal lover. Between stuffed animals and Legos, you really don’t play with much else. Those are the things you spend your money on.

My response to your “animals don’t have to die” comment was this:

“Most people still believe that in order to get enough protein, they have to eat meat. But you and I are obvious proof that’s not the case. We’ve lived without meat for years. And we’re both very healthy; as our family doctor has recently confirmed. And that’s why I made that Green Meanie video about it last week.”

I carried our deep discussion with me to work. As I took my first 10 minute walk of the day during a break around 9:00 AM, in which I walked to the end of the cul-de-sac of where I work, I discovered a young possum in a cage trap.

By noon, it was still there, in the horrible summer heat. So I walked into that building and informed the lady at the front desk. She called the building manager, who freed the possum by the time I left work.

Apparently, foxes and possums have been getting into the dumpster behind that building.

But I’m no specist- I don’t care what kind of animal it is: a domesticated dog, a wild dog, or even a lowly scavenger possum…

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I don’t want to see any animal suffer. So I made sure the possum was freed.

When I came home from work, I was excited to share my “I saved a possum!” story with you.

You then shared your own story with me:

“Daddy! I saved a black cricket today. I saw it crawling on the floor in my class at school, so I picked it up and took it outside! And then after my nap, I got to feed our class pet frog two crickets!”

Yes, there is some certain irony in saving one cricket from being stepped on, yet feeding two other crickets to a frog; all in the same day.

Ultimately, you and I share a love to protecting animals.

But really, you rub off on me more than I do you, I think.

Love,

Daddy

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Dear Jack: Our Visit To Repticon 2015 in Franklin, TN

4 years, 4 months.

Dear Jack: Our Visit To Repticon 2015 in Franklin, TN

Dear Jack,

Thanks to your teacher Ms. Aimee, you have a new found appreciation for reptiles and amphibians. She mentioned that the Repticon (a reptile convention) was coming to the Nashville area, so Mommy bought us tickets on Groupon.

So that’s where we were last Saturday morning. There were obviously all kinds of creepy crawlers to see there. You even got to pet an albino python!

Dear Jack: Our Visit To Repticon 2015 in Franklin, TN

Thanks to all 4 of your class pets at school, you weren’t afraid of any of the animals there… even if maybe you should have been!

But without a doubt, your favorite part of the Repticon was getting to buy your new friend, Snakey.

I had made you a deal earlier in the week that if you agreed to let me cut your hair that I would give you a $5 credit towards a toy at Repticon; as it would have cost nearly $15 for someone else to cut your hair.

Dear Jack: Our Visit To Repticon 2015 in Franklin, TN

You agreed. You matched that credit with $5 that already had and the rest is history.

By now, you have a pretty eclectic collection of stuffed animals. Snakey, the red snake, is definitely on the more bizarre end of the line-up; right up there with your anteater you got for Christmas.

Since last weekend, you have been asking Snakey questions throughout the day, waiting for Mommy to answer you (as Snakey) in a falsetto voice.

Dear Jack: Our Visit To Repticon 2015 in Franklin, TN

Snakey gets to sleep in your bed with you every night and is one of the few animals you have taken to school, back to back days.

I realize that one day you’ll grow out of this stage where your stuffed animals are your favorite toys and your best friends.

But for now, it’s actually a lot of fun for our family to live in the moment together… with Snakey and all his friends.

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: Our Visit To Repticon 2015 in Franklin, TN

Dear Jack: Our Visit To Repticon 2015 in Franklin, TN

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Dear Jack: What Is That Animal In Your Drawing Doing?

4 years, 2 months.

Dear Jack: What Is That Animal In Your Drawing Doing?

Dear Jack,

I am always excited to see what new creative artwork you have for me each day when I pick you up from school.

On Friday, right before we headed over to the circus, one of your drawings particularly caught my attention. You immediately began explaining it to me:

“Daddy, see- he’s got giraffe legs, a cow body, a robot neck, an elephant tale, and a bear head!”

Sure, I was slightly confused by the robot neck, but I had to ask you right away about the one part of picture you failed to describe:

“Jack, what is that animal in your drawing doing?”

Your unapologetic answer was somewhat understated:

“Oh, I did a brown arrow… to point at the poop… because he had a big poop.”

Classic.

Somehow in all your hundreds of pictures you’ve drawn, you’ve never drawn anything with potty humor before.

But that’s the thing; I’m not convinced you were trying to be funny. Your main focus was to point out how you cleverly designed a sort of Frankenstein-style animal.

Dear Jack: What Is That Animal In Your Drawing Doing?

You really do put so much thought into your artwork. Today you brought home 4 new pictures; one of them featuring a charming snowman. You explained to me the full story:

“Daddy, the sun is mad at the snowman because the snowman said he wanted the moon to come out instead that way the snowman won’t melt, so the sun turned purple because he was mad.”

Wow. Seriously. You are one creative little boy.

I am already imagining just a few years from now how your pictures will be evolving into full stories; where you will do like I did when I was a boy and make my own books; writing all the words and drawing all the pictures for your own homemade books.

That is going to be a lot of fun!

Love,

Daddy

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The Pet Store Is The Cheap Version Of The Zoo

May 21, 2014 at 9:36 pm , by

3 years, 6 months.

Dear Jack,

This past Saturday afternoon, as Mommy was gone for a few hours to explore the possibility of becoming a demo singer on the side (we do live in Nashville, after all…), you woke up early from your nap.

We were both in the mood to explore; not to play Legos, cars, or trains.

I decided it was a good time for us to have a fun, free dadventure. It was even more fun because I let you stay in your pajamas.

While our zoo pass is still good for another week or so, I decided to take you by the exotic pet store right down the road from our house, called The Aquatic Critter.

Good call.

So much so, that Mommy decided to go with us again on Sunday.

One of our family favorites was the “Black Dogface Puffer.” It reminded me of Falcor, the flying dog from The Neverending Story.

But for 199 bucks, I have a feeling we won’t be making him our family pet any time soon; even if he was the perfect mix between a dog and a fish…

Strangely enough, the pet store also has some “not for sale” pets that they keep on display for the potential customers.

You know, like an alligator and some rhino iguanas.

I’m always looking for new ways to introduce you to the world. I want to find ways to mix things up.

Sure, the exotic pet store is technically the poor man’s zoo, but it’s a hit.

We’re not at the right place in life to actually consider having a pet; except possibly a beta fish.

But for now, it’s more fun (and a lot less responsibility) to just visit the pet store and pretend all those cool (and weird) animals are your pets that you visit on the weekend.

 

Love,

Daddy