There are too many stories to tell here. My Mom is still plugging along a 85 years and still shaping my Naturalist life. When I was a child, My Mom was the eccentric Lady with all the animals. I grew up with 3-5 dogs in the house at all times and was basically raised by a cat that could predict the weather. Myrtle was the cornerstone of our pet world. I think she was a male Common Tortoise -Testudo graeca that loved dandelions and once tried to mount Tuloo, a painted turtle up from the river to lay her eggs. By age 8, I was an expert iguana wrangler and had broken up a fight between a ferret and a parrot. Mom sewed up the parrots craw and all was well. Since this was long before any trained humane society, my Mom got the calls for injured birds and the oddities. At age 13 I went with Mom to collect a “snake” for the police department that was in somebodies garage. They showed us where it was and then Mom pushed me in to get it. Iguana wrangling came in handy because this was an Argentine Black-and-white Tegu - Salvator merianae. A little exotic for North Dakota. Nobody claimed the 3 foot monitor so we kept her. I would walk her in a chihuahua harness to the swimming pool and put her on the chain link fence. (The girls could not resist a chance to rub her belly.) And, of course, childhood would not be complete without raising 3 orphaned Great Horned Owls - Bubo virginianus. That was the year I discovered welding gloves and our hunting neighbor discovered Great Horned Owls have a taste for Blue Winged Teal. Sorry about that Tom. You shouldn’t have left them on the porch. Thanks to my Mom, this was the year of few songbirds, (also favored by the owls).
So, Thank you Mom for all my rich experiences and the the love of learning that you embody.
A happy mothers day memory.