Being on Top of the Food Chain

I remember this one time when we lived out in Rockwall, basically a rural area, I got a pet lizard. I found him on a parking lot and he was about to get squished, so I rescued him and brought him home. We had a lovely home on one acre with a pond, fish, ducks and stuff so my house seemed much safer than a busy parking lot.

 

So I took him home, bought a cage for him, fixed it up nice and we were really doing well. But then I thought, “Well, it’s so lovely out here in the country, I should just let the lizard go and he could run and play and have fun frolicking in the meadow.”

So I took him outside one day and let him go in my front flower beds. An hour later, a cat ate him. So I was really sad about that but after all, that is the cycle of life. One species is fed by another and thank God, humans are at the top of the food chain.

Another time, we had a plague of crickets so me and my neighbor Saundra went to the local feed store to see what they recommended. They told us to buy ducks or chickens. They said that birds eat crickets so that would be an all-natural way to deal with the cricket plague and not use harmful chemicals.

So we both bought about half a dozen ducks each. I had a nice pond but she didn’t so she bought a kids swimming pool. They also told us to buy chicken feed for the ducks because they could NOT live on insects alone. The feed had the nutritional balance they needed to be healthy. We both bought sacks of chicken feed.

So one day, I was out in the yard picking up trash and her ducks raced to the fence and screamed (Yes, I can speak to animals), “We’re starving! We’re starving! Please help us. She won’t feed us!” They were all in quite a panic.

So I knocked on her back door and said, “Saundra, why aren’t you feeding that chicken feed to your ducks?”

She answered, “Because I want them to stay hungry so they’ll eat more crickets.”

“Your ducks are starving to death. Give me that feed so I can go feed them right now and promise me you’ll feed them twice a day like the feed store lady said.”

So she went and got the feed and handed it to me and I fed them. They all raced over there and ate like they were dying. “How did you know they were starving?” she asked looking at me funny.

“They told me,” I answered.

She just shrugged and went back in the house. Whether you believe I can speak to animals or not, she had no choice but to believe I knew those ducks were starving because they clearly were.

Next time, I’ll tell you about how I used to sit on the edge of our pond in the country and sing to the fish. They rather enjoyed my singing though I admit to not having a great singing voice.