Let The Birds Inside

I just reminded Julie Timmons that once you start feeding birds, they become dependent on you, thus you've pretty much become responsible for their wellness. On cold mornings like this- 30 degrees, according to weather.com, you should let your flock in the house to warm up. I don't think she'll take up my suggestion, but I tried.

As was pointed out on the Nextdoor.com e-mail list yesterday, you should also bring dogs and cats inside. They get cold too. Our kittens are already inside cats so that's taken care of here. They may not like it, but we've had two kittens run over in the street so we try and keep these two inside.

I'm always pleased to see people walking down the street with their dogs. The dogs always seem to have a smile on their face as if they're thinking, "Oh, boy! Life is good. I get to go for a walk". So nice to see, but that always makes me wonder: For every dog well cared for and attended to, how many do we not see that are victims of neglect if not abuse? And repeated neglect can amount to abuse. I suspect there's a lot of that and I've seen some of it myself.

If you're the kind of person that considers your dog or cat a lawn ornament and you leave them alone in the back yard all the time, please bring them inside now.