OCR Text |
Show Ik Jiainbow f r ! f ! I U J J iWt Point In BeeenV1' .X 1 CAROL. LEMON Well, this Is the week to turn our clocks ahead. . . For some reason my own personal clock has a harder hard-er time adjusting to this change than the one in the Fall. It doesn't seem quite right to have daylight at 10:00 p.m. And, you'd better believe that my Internal clock really took a beating while I struggled to learn to enjoy Alaska's 24 hour summer days. Well, Spring brought a 'GIFT' (and I use the term loosely) to the Beaver County News. The Boss's little white dog surprised him with an Easter Basket full of 5 assorted pups. They made their debut a few days ago, and now reside in a box In a cozy corner of the News Office. Maggie Is evidently an old hand at this sort of thing, and Is a devoted Mother. She won't let the Boss's other dog, Jiggs, anywhere near the 'cradle'. Andheisdefl-nitely Andheisdefl-nitely hurt by the whole thing. He sits or lays just outside the 3 foot perimeter she has set, and watches mournfully as thev alternately sleep, nurse, and he whines sadly as she tends to their every need. All sounds well and good -the normal Mom -has -Pups syndrome. Yes? No. . . she is so motherly she puts the rest of us to shame. A few days ago, a neighbor neigh-bor boy plowed up a rabbits rab-bits nest while working on a farm. The mother rabbit and all the babies were killed, kill-ed, except for one tiny bundle bun-dle of fur. Well, what do you do with a newborn? Amy fixed him a box lined with quilt batting bat-ting to make a cozy bed, we fed him milk with an eyedropper, and some new, tender alfalfa leaves. The next day she took him to school so she could feed him during the day, and after school brought him by the Shop. Maggie and brood, looked so comfortable and cozy in their box next to the Boss's desk, that I said, "Why not!' And did it! 'Look, Maggie,' I said, Here's somebody who needs you and I plopped the baby rabbit under her nose. 'She gave it a couple of preliminary sniffs, then nudged it closer to her bounteous boun-teous milk supply, gave it a bath, and saw that it was snuggly, and warmly welcomed. wel-comed. Later that evening when the Boss put the other pups in his 'carrying' box to take them home, he left the rabbit rab-bit in the box with Maggie. She watched anxiously as he walked toward the door with her brood. 'What do you think you're doing?' she seemed to say. 'Come on, let's go', the Boss called. Usually at these words she picks herself up from whatever she's doing and trots to the car for the ride home. But not today. She couldn't leave this one fuzzy, longeared pup alone, could she! 'Haven't you forgotten something, Boss?, her tall wagged. Despite all his imploring she wouldn't budge, and even seemed upset when I finally picked up the baby and put him in his own nursery box. Now, days later, she still accepts the renegade as one of her own, and he seems content to snuggle alongside the other wiggly inhabitants of the 'nest'. I have to admit that she and I evidently have something some-thing In common. She gets out of the box now and then, heaves a sigh, and plops down a few feet away. 'Boy, she seems to be saying, 'These kids can sure be a pain In the neck at times.' But then, it's back to the box, and plenty of T.L.C. enough for all. I have to agree that Man has suffered in his separation separa-tion from the other living creatures of the world. Tho' the evolution of his intellect has outgrown his animal needs, he must still share part of his life with them, and for security, he must look long at some part of the earth as it was before he tampered with it. To me, Nature is simply essential and indispensable, like air water and light, life can't go on without it. J. To feel .the tempp of the " seasons change about us, to watch the clouds roll and tumble across the sky; to feel the air fresh and clean after a spring rain; and to find the first dandelion of Spring, or to savor the miracle of new birth all are inalienable rights, just as important as those of . life & liberty and fall into the category of the pursuit of. happiness. Generations yet unborn will either thank us, or condemn con-demn us for the legacy we leave them . . . Wouldn't it be terrible to be young without with-out a wilderness, free of Man's meddling, to be young in? |