Animals on the loose

I've made brief, passing mention of our town's black bears. While last year's single appearance of one bear in our backyard seemed a fluke--just a wrong turn as she made her way to her usual stops at richer, smellier garbage cans--it seems the bears are here to stay. This year I had the privilege of greeting a bear on our front yard one evening, and this past week, one decided to pass through the neighborhood just as all the school buses were returning. No wonder they are practicing "bear habits" at school side by side with fire drills, emergency evacuations, and so on.

Today we had quite a different set of animals on the loose! These might look familiar! Thanks to our fabulous church for this afternoon of great fun.

Did someone call for a dalmatian? Perhaps this one strayed from the firehouse up the street.

Friendliest tiger I've ever seen!

Hey--where'd this one come from? That's a real wild animal--or at least Ty barking his noisy head off!

All fun must end, as we know. Here's a teary Lucas at bedtime, facing (quite literally) that the tiger could not go to bed with him. Over and over he cried, "But I'm never going to remember him. I'm going to forget him!" And come to think of it, I probably sound just like him as I achingly face the end of my fabulous weekends at home! May we all carry the memories with us into this new week--and may these friendly, familiar animals frequent our homes more often than the truly wild visitors!