Feed the birds....tuppence a bag

Last night Grandma showed up with a small cardboard box that peeped. Upon further investigation my children discovered it was full of baby pheasants. Nine to be exact. What a thoughtful mother I have. It seems her co-worker found some eggs and tried them out in her incubator. Now we have an instant bird family. We got out the heat lamp and bought some chick starter and put them up high in the garage so the cats won't get to them. They are peeping up a storm, I put some stones in a shallow dish for water and they are guzzling it down. All 9 were still accounted for this morning. My 4 year old prayed for their health and safety last night. "What happened to their mommy?" she asked. I told her as gently that I could that their mommy was sick or lost or maybe in heaven. "And their daddy works all the time so he can't take care of them, right?" Ugh, an knife right into my heart. I was caught a tiny bit off guard and as I tried to think of words to say I heard a sniff behind me, my husband had heard it, too. I swiftly explained that in the bird world, it just wasn't the daddies job to take care of the babies. Later, as we were drifting off to sleep, my hubby says," maybe we should plan a family day this next week, I've been really busy lately". Thank goodness for Grandma, she really knows how to bring things full circle.