The Circle of Life is a real thing.

Sitting on our back porch, we see a lot of crazy things happen.  Children are getting beat, wheelbarrows full of things to buy are walking by the house, and animals of all kind are running around in the yard.  One day, however, was especially traumatic for us.  That was the day the mother hen lost one of her chicks.

Sarah and I were sitting on the back porch, per usual, just shooting the breeze and enjoying our lives.  All of a sudden, I hear this awful squaking coming from the hen in our neighbor’s yard and I look up to see her flying as best she can.  (The chickens here really do fly…I’ve seen them up in the trees, four or five feet off the ground.  I guess that’s what happens when you don’t pump a hen full of steroids…) 

I looked up and saw this hawk flying away rather quickly with a baby chick in its mouth.  As it flew out of our sight, we could still here it chirping for its mom.  Sarah was traumatized, and after sitting there for a minute, I spoke (with all the wisdom I could muster), “And that’s how the cookie crumbles.”  We laughed about that, but overall, the experience was pretty sad.

A few weeks later, sitting on our back porch again, we hear this awful noise coming from the same neighbor’s yard.  Looking over, we noticed a dog was chasing a duck; after a few feet, it succeeded in catching said duck and running away with his dinner.  Our neighbor chased after the dog, throwing whatever he could pick up from the ground, but it was of no use.   Dogs run free around the neighborhood, and after seeing that dog eat one like it was no big deal, I can understand why Liberians are not fond of pet puppies. 

Living with livestock all around us has made me realize a few things about life here and about life in Nebraska.  First of all, there is no birthing season here.  Animals are having babies year-round; in fact, the same mama duck just had her second set of ducklings since we have been in Pleebo.  Additionally, animals here are left to their own devices.  While they are small, the owners will feed them, but once they are big enough to roam around, dinner is left on their shoulders to find.  This is find, with the way all of our garbage is just thrown in a big pile behind our house, but it also goes against the entire idea of feeding my dogs twice a day, every day. 

Mama with her ducklings...before the dog incident.

Liberian animals are doing just fine, though, don’t get me wrong.  The animals roaming our neighborhood seem rather happy, and they never cause us problems.  My only request is that the roosters understand they should only be crowing in the morning – not whenever they feel like it throughout the day.  They wake me up at 5:00 am, and they’re still annoying at 2:00 pm.  I don’t understand their schedule…in fact, I’m beginning to think they don’t have one.