Sparky Makes Some New Friends

Chippy asked me, Sparky, to cover his blog this week. The Woodpile is pretty deserted. The cold and rainy weather was just the excuse all my chipmunks friends needed to catch a few more zzzz’s of hibernation time. There wasn’t anything to do, everything was shutdown due to lack of customers. They even turned off the cable service and the wifi! How can anyone live like this? The only thing open was all you can eat buffet, and it was only serving cracked corn from an automatic dispenser.

While I was drowning my boredom eating very stale corn kernels, a bunch of English sparrows dropped by. Most humans consider them a nuisance species. Once you get to know them, they are pretty cool. It did take a bit of time to understand their British accent and odd use of certain words and phrases. It added to their charm.

They regaled me with stories about their ancestors. Their great, great, great grandparents grew up in 19^th century London. Conditions were terrible: overcrowding, contaminated water, and diseases just to name a few. They migrated to America aboard the great steamship liners and came through Ellis Island. They found wide open country sides, well stocked bird feeders, and nice clean nesting boxes. It was the American dream. Like many immigrants they were met with suspicion, prejudice, and fear. People chased them away from the feeders and kicked them out of the nesting boxes. A number them eventually took refuge at the Woodpile were they were treated with kindness, compassion, and respect.

I looked up from my meal to see I wasn’t alone anymore.

I made some new friends