Animals...

Been having some run-ins with animals lately. Perhaps God is teaching me and the family about our responsibilities towards the animals around us.

' Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." ' Genesis 1:26

1. 
   
   
   First, some bird decided to build a nest in one of the trees in a small garden next to our lift lobby, and of course it got cut down when the trees where pruned. Some kind soul (gardener?) tried to prop it back up on the branch, but it was not in a good position (no shelter from wind and rain). From quiet observation (involving a bit of hiding and creeping), discovered that it was the nest of yellow vented bulbul - quite pretty birds as you can see. We re-positioned the nest, strengthened the branch with some ropes, and over the next few weeks, checked back regularly. The nest actually fell a few times after that due to gusts of wind, but praise God that the eggs were not damaged. The eggs finally hatched into 2 pretty little birds (see pic on the left: nest and two gapping mouths of the hatchlings, and pic on the right showing what the adult birds look like), and over about 2 weeks, the parent birds both came back to feed the hatchings. Even then, one of the hatchlings fell out a couple of times, and we had to chase it down (can't fly yet) and prop it back up into the nest. Finally one day I came back and saw the nest empty - I hope it means the two baby birds are fine and well now. There are many yellow vented bulbuls in my area, and each time I see them, I like to imagine that the two we "saved" through God's grace are there amongst them. :)
2. Then some time later, we were dropping off some stuff at the Salvation Army collection centre, I saw that someone had left a hamster cage. Upon taking a look, I found that there were actually two live hamsters still in the cage, can you believe that? It is hard to imagine what would possess a person to abandone their pet hamsters at the Salvation Army collection centre. If the rodents are becoming a problem, why don't they pay for a vet to put them to sleep in a humane way rather than abandone them at the shelter to die a slow death. I must confess that I too did not do the right thing - I was in a rush and that's just what I did, I rushed off.
   
3. Just when I was feeling really bad about leaving the hamsters there, we found an abandoned rabbit where we live.
   
   Apparently someone tossed it into the rubbish chute and the cleaners found it and did not know what to do with it. We took it home for a couple of days least it die of hunger or be attacked by the neighbourhood cats, and of course the kids fell in love with it - a very beautiful brown rabbit as you can see.
   
   Had to make a quick decision - keep it or drive it all the way to SPCA. Finally decided on the latter, mainly because the kids are still too young to care for it. It was a good experience for the boys to come with me to SPCA, but kinda hard to explain why anyone would want to throw such a beautiful animal into the chute!

My prayer is that even as the Lord blesses us, that we do not become an ungracious society that takes it as our right to abuse animals in the name of selfishness and convenience. Although it is sad that the pets were abandoned, I am thankful that the Lord brought these animals to me, as it gave me the opportunity to teach my children their God given role to care for the animals around us. Hopefully, the brown rabbit (named "Brownie" by the boys) has found a good home by the time of this post.