Photo by Bill Pennell on Unsplash
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, tries to help the keeper stay calm over bird feeder issues, particularly after hearing from the keeper’s brother Orville up in Barron County where a black bear has smashed the bird feeder and taken up a lounging presence in the feeder’s proximity.
Dedicated animal/bird people, Orv and Shirley are in the process of making the painful life-style change of pulling up long-standing roots and moving to accommodations similar to the keeper’s where somebody else mows the lawn and shovels the snow. It is a lifestyle that can include bird feeders, and the keeper complains to Phyllis that his balcony feeders attract only drab grackles and starlings, and never colorful orioles and warblers.
In counseling his brother about accepting some of life’s unpleasant reality, however, the keeper can reassure Orv that in his new “independent living” digs there will be no bear problem at the bird feeder. And if there is, somebody else will chase the critter away, somebody younger and more agile than the keeper’s “old” kid brother.
