The Magpies

Paul and I are very good to animals. Our animals have the run of our house and we pretty much let them. They never get yelled at or disciplined and they get to sleep and snuggle wherever they want to. As a result, the rumors get around the neighborhood that our house is a good house to be an animal. So...we've had stray cats set up camp in our yard; stray dogs have tried to move in and dogs that we know are not stray have come to hang out on our doorstep. Last week we had a little fledgling magpie set up camp in our yard, which was very cute. We followed it around the house and kept our eye on it so nothing happened to it.

Tonight, the fledgling and his two siblings are learning to fly and using as their launching pad the fence around our backyard. I've been watching their parents show them how to do it and laughing at their attempts to not fall off the fence. It's been very exciting around here. Lots of babies.