Animal magic

A soft rain has been falling in Scotland since we arrived home. The last of the summer’s flowers are having a final burst before the season is out. Bumblebees cower in amongst the wilting blooms waiting for the showers to pass. One particularly bedraggled specimen made it in to the house on my jumper sleeve. Little Owl and I found him a sunflower head in a sheltered spot where he could dry himself off and get a bit of sustenance.

Little Owl has a wonderful floor puzzle of a map of the world, showing where different animals live on the atlas. I had this great idea to use it as an educational tool by watching clips of the animals shown on the puzzle on the computer as we went along. It turns out I’m not as clever as I thought because it’s very hard to find child-friendly film footage of animals. Who would have thought that baby koala bears eat their mother’s poo? I’ve lived for over three decades without that knowledge and I’m sure Little Owl could have done the same. “Just like a probiotic yoghurt,” the commentator said. I’m not sure I’ll look at a probiotic yoghurt in the same way again.

Of course, I understand that we’re talking about wild animals here and it’s not going to be all nicey-nice. It would just be good to watch a straightforward clip of a turtle swimming without the next minute, the turtle being attacked by a shark. I mean, most turtles must spend the majority of their time swimming around quite merrily not being attacked by sharks mustn’t they? And well, let’s face it, with a small child in the house, we have enough poo-based conversations without stimulating any more. You’ll all be far too sensible to have embarked on such an idea but just in case, I’ve been able to designate three animals ‘safe’. They are beavers, kangaroos, and meerkats. Aren’t you glad I’m here?