Creatures great and small

Wellsville is such a vast sprawl to find oneself lost in. It's a picture of grasses and valley, framed only by mountain and sky. Mountains alone can make a person feel small. And when they take your breath away, standing on their summit, they alone make you feel like you could conquer the world.

But I don't really want to rule the Earth. Not really. I want to visit barnyards and cow-pastures for Easter, and relish the Springtime when animal babies are sweetening life just that much more.

That small degree, a centimeter really, of measurement, where fuzzy innocent against your cheekbone can flutter your senses and make you feel like the world is a decent place. You can't NOT smile when holding a tiny bunny.

You can't NOT squeal at the sight of a miniature, miniscule turtle---so small and darty that if dropped on the ground, it MUST be chased!

If I could steal that teeny little turtle, I think my life would be complete. I'd hold it forever and poke at it for hours in endless, simplistic-minded fun.

Really though, Baby Animal Days in the Northern Hemisphere of this grand old pioneer conquered state has become a tradition in the 5 short years that Topaz has been on this planet. It's fun for me, it's fun for her, which is essentially what I chalk up to a win/win situation. It's nice to have that in common---our love of animals. While my passionate protection of things great and small may outweigh that of my kidlet's, it's only a matter of time before she becomes a marine biologist, or a starving student of Veterinary Medicine, or something equally convicted and scientifically educated. Right? Ok, so perhaps I'm projecting. I'd be happy if Topaz grew up to be a finance analyst at some boring, pretentious firm, just so long as she adopted the occasional senior golden retriever or 5-toed kitten. Ahhh, to be a dreaming, conniving mother---it's certainly an amusing pass-time...