Mama Squirrel

Hello! My Name Is...

You may have noticed I haven't written in awhile.   I've been going through a bit of an identity crisis here with my blog.  I started blogging in August of 2010 to chronicle my adventure in not buying toys for my children.  The original name for my blog, Little Tiger and the Milk Belly Princess, was inspired by my two daughters who were two and four years old at the time.  Little Tiger was the name The Mister gave to Flannery, our oldest child, when she was a baby.  The name stuck and is still used today. The Milk Belly Princess was a funny nickname for two year old Maeve who LOVED to drink milk so much that she had a "milk belly" (think "beer belly" but on a toddler girl).  

While Little Tiger is a nickname Flannery may never outgrow, Maeve is no longer The Milk Belly Princess.  Behold the transformation from this

 

To this

 

Continuing to call the blog "Little Tiger and the Milk Belly Princess" was to continue to give Maeve a nickname that no longer suited her.  So I knew I needed to choose a new name.

I decided on "Mama Squirrel" because, although I often write about my family, ultimately this blog is about me and my interests and I am, if you know me you know that I am furtive and darting.  I don't mean to be that way, it's just that my instincts get the better of me and...well...I scurry a lot, much like those little creatures you see on your lawn and in the trees.  I have a plan, although it may not always be obvious to all. And...well...I have several little "nests" about the house where I store my current craft projects and interests.  

I hope you will continue to join me on my adventures here.  It's been a long cold winter, but it finally feels like spring is in the air.  

 

 

 

The Night I Ate Crow For Dinner

We were sitting on the patio at an area restaurant. We  just ordered our food and both girls were working on activity books.  Shortly after the beverages arrived, The Milk Belly Princess spilled some lemonade on her dress.  She was concerned, but I told her not to worry about it; it was only a few drops, it was a hot day and the sun would dry it quickly.  

The Mister and I were busy watching a small group of younger patrons smoking just  on the other side of the patio fence.  While the patio itself was non-smoking, that rule did not apply to the restaurant's parking lot and half a dozen twentysomethings were lighting up fifteen feet away from us.  

I glared at them and thought evil thoughts.  Are they going to do that the whole time we're here?  Who do they think they are?  How dare they  ruin my family dinner with their disgusting habit? 

"Stupid.  They're stupid."  I muttered as The Mister and I both shook our heads in disgust.

I say  this as an ex-smoker, someone who started in high school out of boredom and endured several seasons of  smelly clothing, lessened energy and subpar health before I forced myself to stop.  If, when my daughters get a little older and go through the "Did-you-ever-smoke-or-drink-or-do-drugs-or-run-away-from-home-and-join-a-traveling-circus-as-The-Bearded-Lady-because-we-know-how-often-you-get-your-eyebrows-done-and-your-lip-waxed-and-you-could-definitely-pull-it-off  Phase" I will answer the smoking portion of that question in the affirmative...and admit that it was stupid.

All of a sudden The Milk Belly Princess was screaming like I've never heard her scream before.  Her chair was rocking from side to side as she  kicked her legs, flapped her arms and shreiked.  As I leapt up to see what was wrong, I saw a bee fly out from under her dress.  She'd been stung.

Neither of my daughters have ever been stung by bees.  In addition to being in pain, I think  part of her reaction was out of fear.  One minute she was working through mazes enjoying some lemonade and the next she was being stabbed in the thigh.  What was happening?

I ran into the restaurant and asked the bartender for a bag of ice.  As I passed a couple dining on the patio I shouted, "She's been stung by a bee!  She's a good girl!  She's been stung!"

Did you see what I did there?  How I judged and wrote off a whole group of people based on one superficial trait and then, not five minutes later freaked out at the thought of anyone thinking my daughter was "bad" for screaming?  The irony of the juxtaposition of my snap judgement of the smokers with the fear of me and my child being judged harshly by others is not lost on me.  ...but thank you for noticing.

The staff at the restaurant was very attentive.  Within a minute we had a giant bag full of ice.  As The Mister and I examined The Milk Belly Princess' rapidly swelling knee, one of the young men who'd been smoking by the fence approached us.  

"Is it a bee sting?"  he asked.  

When I said it was  he said, "Garlic, I swear to God, rub a clove of garlic on the sting.  It works." and then he walked away.

Our server brought us a clove of garlic from the kitchen.  The Mister put it on The Milk Belly Princess' knee  and it worked like magic.  Almost immediatelty she stopped crying and the swelling started to go down.  

Someone I'd written off not ten minutes earlier as stupid saved the day with his knowledge of how to treat bee stings.  He helped my little girl in a way that never would have occurred to me.

The food arrived.  I usually love this particular restaurant's Buffalo Chicken Salad, but on that particular night it tasted a lot like crow.  

Afterword:  Since the garlic worked like a charm, The Milk Belly Princess was her usual, playful self by the time we arrived at home.  Little Tiger wanted to do something nice for her little sister so she offered to give her a "makeover."   Here she is about two hours post-sting showing off her new "pin curls" courtesy of Little Tiger:

 

Box of Days

 Eleven years ago, The Mister and I received a decorative wooden box as a wedding present from The Mister's sister Kate.  The card inside the  box said it was for storing photos so, for several years, that's what I did.  Unfortunately, the photos I stored in the box weren't ones The Mister or I looked at very often so  the box sat in a lonely corner of our living room collecting dust.  It was a pretty box with a design inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and its underuse in our house made me sad.  

When  I read a blog post about making a perpetual calendar I realized that this box would be the perfect home for this project, so I emptied out the photos and got started.  I'd been looking for an easy way to document our everyday life and this simple calendar is perfect.

Here's how it works:  You need  365 index cards, one  for every day of the year.  Write the month and day of the month at the top of each card (not the year).  Organize the cards so the current day is always the top card.  At the end of each day, pull out the card with that day's date on it, begin your entry with the current year and write a sentence or two about what happened.  When you are finished with your entry, put the card in the back of the box.  The new top card will be the entry card for the next day.  

Once you've been doing this for awhile, it's fun to look back and see all of the different things your family has done on a given date over the years.  For best results, complete your daily entry at the same time every day.  You could complete your entry right before bedtime, or first thing in the morning for the previous day.  Keep the box in a place where it is visible and easy to reach.  Ours is prominently displayed on our kitchen counter next to the phone and our keys.  Try your best to complete an entry for each day, but keep with the project even if you forget sometimes.  I've been working on this since July of 2010, but not every card has three complete entries on it.   I'm not perfect--now you know.  

All you need to make this calendar is a container, a pen (preferably one you enjoy writing with) and 365 4x6 index cards.  Design Sponge has a tutorial for how to make something similar here.   The two major differences between the Design Sponge calendar and ours here at Casa de Costello are that DS uses a berry basket for the container and divides the months up with vintage postcards, which adds some color. 

Vintage postcards would be pretty and I could definitely come up with 12 good ones, but since the calendar records our family activities, I think it would be more appropriate to use family pictures instead.   The next time I print photos I'll choose one from each of the 12 months of the year and those will serve as our dividers.  

Zerolandfill '12: The First Pollination and a Primer For Friday's Harvest

Last year I volunteered at one of the August pollination shifts for Zerolandfill (ZL) and wrote about it here.  At that point in the season there were already stacks and stacks of donated materials in the warehouse.  During that shift, my primary job was sorting and stacking a very generous fabric donation from the daughter of an interior designer who recently passed away.  I did not see the dramatic difference in the contents of the warehouse before and after the first pollination.  Walking into an empty room and leaving when it was full of tons of materials like Laura and I did last  Friday was a very different experience

One after the other, cars and vans arrived full of donated materials.  They were sorted, weighed and  taken to different areas of the warehouse.  One of my first jobs was carrying stacks of weighed glass to the glass table.  As I write this, there are HUNDREDS of 12 x 12 inch pieces of glass in need of new homes.  Some of it is plain, but some is striped and even polka dotted.  I wish I could think of a use for the polka dotted glass but, alas, I cannot.  

Along with the expected swatches of upholstery fabric, yards of outdoor awning material were among Friday's donations.  I snagged a couple of pieces of this to reupholster  two tired looking patio chairs.  Here is a picture of the fabric--isn't it cheerful? 

I'm not sure about the polka dots, but I know there is more of the striped fabric, at least enough to cover the seats of a couple of cafe chairs, if any of you are interested.

We were really busy processing new donations at ZL last Friday so I did not have a lot of time to select my own materials.  My selections happened furtively in between running loads of fabric, wallpaper, glass and tile to their locations in the warehouse.  However, in addition to the awning fabric, I did grab a few more things that caught my eye.  Two large swatches of this fun fabric were already serged around the edges, so I grabbed  them to use as placemats for my girls:

In the hot summer months we are perpetually drinking glass after glass of ice water at Casa de Costello and our four coasters are forever missing from the living room after being taken for use on bedroom nightstands.  As I was sorting carpet samples, I found these industrial strength, rubber-backed discs, and decided they would be perfect.  

I'm not sure I'm exaggerating (at least not by much) when I say that TONS of tile was donated, including these:   

 

I thought long and hard about whether to take these because I wasn't sure what I would do with them. Then I decided that between the two tables I wanted to tile and the work I wanted to do on my (dare I call it a studio?  "supply pit" seems crass) work space, they would find a good home.  

While I spent my time last week lifting, carrying and sorting, Laura was hard at work on two new features of ZL:  the ZL Gallery and the ZL Lab.  The ZL Gallery is a place where anyone who has created something with ZL materials can show off their work or that of their students.  The purpose of the ZL Gallery is for creative people to share and inspire others with their creations.  Items can be brought to ZL during harvest times and left for the duration of your harvest experience or this summer's entire ZL season.  Items that are not picked up by 3PM on the final harvest date (8/24) will become the property of ZL.  All items submitted to the ZL Gallery must be accompanied by a complete entry form.  The form is quick and easy to fill out with a few questions about what the item is made of and how it was created.

The ZL Lab is a place to see how different ZL materials work with different tools and media so when you leave the site  you know they will work as anticipated with your personal or classroom tools and media.   The materials at the ZL Lab are divided into four categories containing the following items for you to experiment with:

Cutting:  school scissors, Exacto knife, coping saw, utility blade and drill

Gluing: paste, glue stick, white glue, duct tape, hot glue, rubber cement

Applying Color:  crayon, Crayola marker, Sharpie, acrylic paint, watercolor paint, tempera paint, colored pencils, ink pads.

Fiber Arts:  fabric shears, regular sewing needle and thread, tapestry needle and yarn, iron

Please understand that the ZL Lab is a work station manned by art teachers willing to offer their professional expertise about media and tools.  It is not free babysitting nor is it a place for you or your children to complete "make it and take it" crafts.  (In other words, you can visit the ZL Lab to see what kinds of cutting materials work well with laminate, but you cannot complete your entire bird house, picture frame etc, at the lab.  )  

 If you go:

1. ZL Cleveland is located at 4750 East 131st Street in Garfield Heights.  The harvest times this season are from 12-3 on the following Fridays:  7/27, 8/10, 8/17 and 8/24.  Arrive on time, but not early.  Last year the doors did not open until noon.  You will see people entering between 11:15 and noon, but those are volunteers.  If you are a few minutes early, form an orderly line at the door.
2. Be prepared to get dirty.  This event is held in a warehouse at what is essentially the county dump.  While the donated materials are clean, the space is not.  (After kneeling to sort fabric for about five minutes my knees were black.)  Wear old clothes and close-toed shoes.  Bring gardening or work gloves if you're interested in tile, stone, brick or glass.
3. Think carefully about whether or not you should bring your children.  I have nothing against children.  In fact,  I say this as the mother of two little kids, one of whom is a bit wily.  This event is held in a big, dirty warehouse full of potentially sharp and heavy materials.  There is no one available to watch your children except YOU (the ZL Lab is staffed by and for use by adults).  There are some children who have a great time at ZL.  They stay close to their parents, follow the rules and delight in choosing craft materials.  There are others who run amok and create potentially dangerous situations.  Please, know which kind of kid you have,  what kind of day they are having and make your decision accordingly.
4. Bring provisions.  There is A LOT to look at.  You don't want dehydration to bust up your good time, so bring a water bottle. If you decide to bring your children with you, bring some snacks (and wipes to use before handling the snacks--see item #2).  
5. Supply your own boxes and bags.  Most of the boxes we received last week are being used to store donations.  While there seemed to be several empty boxes at the end of last Friday's pollination, those will be needed by ZLF if more donations are received this week.  While you can bring some sort of wagon or dolly to take heavy items to your car, there is a small staircase from the entrance to the warehouse floor, so you will need to negotiate that.
6. Be courteous.  Materials are available for free on a first come, first serve (and self-serve) basis.  If you see something that you like or believe would be useful to you, take what you need, but don't hoard.  
7. Don't judge the other harvesters.  Saying "I teach" or "I need this for my business" as a means of talking someone out of something you want implies that you are somehow more important than they are.  Everyone believes they have a worthy purpose for the available materials--they wouldn't take them if they didn't.  
8. Be flexible.  This year the International Interior Design Association is in charge of Zerolandfill.  In other words, it is under new management and, consequently, you might notice some things that are different.  Remember what it was like when you were newly in charge of something?  Remember how unhelpful it was for oldtimers to tell you how "this wasn't how we did it last year"?   The group from IDA has done a phenomenal job organizing tons of donations in a short time.  Be supportive.  Introduce yourself and tell them what a great job they're doing.  

 

Ta-da!

After months of work, I finally finished it.  Before hanging in it's new home in Little Tiger's bedroom I took it outside to take a picture in the summer sun:

I really enjoyed this project.  Sewing took some time, but accumulating enough buttons of certain colors is really what made this take so long.  Purple and orange (especially orange) were the most difficult to come by.  I thought I had a large collection of orange buttons, but a lot of them turned out to be more pink or brown when I placed them on the canvas next to those that are truly orange.

As I sewed on the final button last night, I thought I would feel a huge sense of relief, but I didn't.  Instead I was anxious and kind of sad.  I've grown really comfortable with this project. Unlike other projects where I've questioned what I'm doing until I'm almost finished, I knew this piece was going to look good from early on.  It was comforting to spend hours every night working on something I knew I would be happy with in the end.  

But now its over and I'm not sure what I should do next.  I have a blank 8x10" canvas waiting patiently for me.  I could do another white heart.  I thought about a bluebird with the plethora of blue buttons I have in my stash, but then I thought that might be too silly.  Would I be getting too close to being the little old lady who recreates The Last Supper with different colored bread ties?  Is there something wrong with that?   

Prt Tm Lvr

Yes, cheesy  word play in the title there.  I really wanted to title this post with a quote by Mary Poppins sans vowels, but I didn't think anyone could decode "ngh s s gd s fst."  (Or can you?  I would be so, so impressed if you could.)

Big changes are afoot in my little corner of the world (No, I'm not pregnant. I just really, really like empire waist dresses, thank you very much.  The high waist makes my Welsh Corgi like legs seem just a wee bit longer than they really are.).  After a whirlwind closing of the school year (#14 for me) on June 7th I put full time teaching on hiatus for the forseeable future.

Yes, you read that right.  Next year, I'm going to be teaching high school English PART TIME.  After I expressed interest in teaching something less than six classes a day, my district offered me what I see as a dream schedule and I accepted.  More about this will come out in dribbles and spills throughout the summer, but here's the tip of the iceberg.

Of course, half time is also half the pay and that's where my quote by Mary Poppins (or, I guess, to be more precise, P.L. Travers) comes in.  I'm at a point in my life where I don't define success with money.  If you do, I won't judge, but it's not where I am anymore.  I've been reading some minimalist blogs lately like this one and this one and I've started to rethink my goals and priorities.  

That last sentence sounds like I could be on the verge of selling all of my worldly possessions, and doing something  like this guy, but I'm not planning anything that extreme.  Instead, I'm reconciling "The Person I (Thought I ) Want(ed) To Be" with Who I Really Am and making changes where I see a disparity.  

For example, since I began teaching 14 years ago I've aspired to be someone who looks really pulled together--hair, make-up, the whole nine yards.  I thought it would make a difference, but I never really made it there.  The times I came close I didn't get the pay-off I expected.  Even though several years ago I spent forever getting ready for the first and subsequent call back interview at My Dream Job, they offered the position to someone else.  When I spent hours getting ready for a gathering where I didn't know many people I still felt awkward when I got there.  I would have been better off spending the hours before the party doing yoga to relax and refocus on things that really matter.

The few good hair days I had (all of them B.L.T.--Before Little Tiger) were the result of waking up a solid hour and a half early and putting a ridiculous amount of time and product into my hair.  If I have an extra ninety minutes in my day I'm definitely not spending it in front of the mirror.  I would rather pull my hair back into a pony tail and sleep/craft/read/do pretty much anything else.

Even though I realized this years ago, I've still spent the past six years paying a lot of money to get my hair cut and colored at a salon so if I ever decide I want to be The Woman With Nice Hair I could jump into that role.  Except I'm ready to admit to myself now that I know I never will.  I also will never be the Woman With Nice Shoes or The Girl With An Immaculate Car.  And I'm OK with that.

So I'm going to go to Great Clips with my daughters and wear clogs.  Although I never will have an immaculate car, I will make more of an effort to clear the seats of crayons before I park it in the sun for six hours.  

In return, I want to devote my time and resources to what really matter and realize that "Enough is as good as a feast."

I'm leaving you with one of my favorite pictures from this week.  I'll tell you more about this later.   

Crafty Cravings: Button Edition

When I was in the midst of The Experiment my crafting  consisted primarily of making gifts for my daughters for the next birthday or upcoming holiday.  I began each project with the goal of making a toy that would appeal to them.  Experimentation was risky because I had to please an audience other than myself. 

Now that it is over I have more time to play.    When I'm crafting for myself, my only goal is to have fun.  Instead of beginning with the goal of an attractive finished product, my project choices are guided by what I feel compelled to work with.  Lately, that has been buttons.  

My latest project started out as a game.  I wanted to see how many different designs I could find within a jar of white buttons.  The answer?  LOTS.  I liked how so many different eras, styles and materials were represented by something as simple as a white button.  Some were still sewn to their original cards while others had old bits of material and thread stuck to them.  As I sorted I wondered how many different closets and sewing baskets they came form.

I knew I could only admire the buttons on my sewing table for so long before they started to get knocked to the floor, stepped on, vacuumed up, etc.  They definitely weren't being displayed to advantage in the jar, so I chose a few and created a way to admire them.  

It might not look like much, but this project was crazyfun for me.  I painted over one of the canvases I wrote about here.  I don't really trust chalk (I know, weird, especially because I'm a teacher) so for the heart shape I cut a heart out of some scrap paper, sewed the border buttons around the heart, removed the paper and filled in the center.  Something about sewing through canvas is really satisfying to me.  

No two buttons are alike!

Miss Montessori

Today made me sad.  It started out as a dot on the horizon and has been inching closer for the past three years.  I knew it would come eventually, but that didn't make it any easier.  Today was the day I had to hand in the letter acknowledging once and for all that Little Tiger is not returning to her beloved Montessori school in the fall.  Her sister will return as a second year pre-primary student, but Little Tiger will begin a new adventure in a different first grade classroom.  

I didn't know it at the time, but Little Tiger's educational journey began  in the group I wrote about here.  In fact, the baby next to Little Tiger in the very first picture in that post has been her classmate for the past three years and is one of her best friends.  The baby's grandmother works at Little Tiger's school and that is how I became aquainted with it.  She gave me a tour, while the toddler teacher interviewed Little Tiger and both my daughter and I were smitten.  

Little Tiger's school is a joyful learning environment where she has blossomed in ways that seemed incomprehensible to me four years ago when she took her first tentative steps into the toddler classroom.Her teachers are amazing.  Little Tiger says at least once a day, her small voice full of conviction, that "Mrs. Johnson is the best teacher in the world."  

Mrs. Johnson is wise and the positive influence she has on Little Tiger extends far beyond her classroom. When the Mister or I complain about the weather, Little Tiger reminds us that "Mrs. Johnson says there's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes."  Although it may sound silly, there have been several times over the past two winters when this has given me the gentle push I need to put on some gloves and brave the snow.

When we denied Little Tiger a DS for her fifth birthday and Christmas, she was disappointed.  But, to our relief,  her desire to own such a thing evaporated when "Mrs. Johnson says  you don't need to play computer games because you have the best computer right here." Little Tiger announced one afternoon as she tapped her forefinger to her head.  

In addition to being wise, Mrs. Johnson and her assistant, Miss Daune are amazingly creative.  
Who else would think to make a model of an ant hill using a date as the queen and QUINOA as the ant eggs?

The intelligence, creativity and nurturing Little Tiger has received from her school over the past four years are extraordinary.  I feel so blessed that my shy little toddler has blossomed into this smart curious little girl who was so proud to bring home her thousand chain and show her mama and daddy she successfully counted from 1-1000 by tens.

If I never make a good choice again for the rest of my life at least I know I picked an amazing early childhood experience for my daughters.  I will allow myself to be sad tonight, but tomorrow I will celebrate that The Milk Belly Princess still has two years left at this wonderful place and her older sister is moving on to new and exciting experiences.   Growth and change is a joyful thing but, at the moment of transition, sometimes it just hurts.

Little Red Four Year Old

Before we get too far away from the birth month of The Milk Belly Princess, I would like to share some pieces of her birthday party with you.  Seven little girls gathered at BAYarts on a Saturday afternoon to help us celebrate.  Per the request of The Milk Belly Princess, the theme was Little Red Riding Hood, a theme she decided on at this time last year.  In fact, last spring,  when the local JoAnn Fabrics went out of business, I bought an entire bolt of red felt at their clearance sale.  I had lofty goals of making little red riding hoods for all of the guests.  Then, as the year wore on and it was time to start making the hoods, I began to wonder whether they would look as adorable as I'd originally envisoned.  Would The Milk Belly Princess and her friends look like the sweet protagonist of her favorite fairy tale, or would they seem more like tiny druids?  

In the end, my mother, The Amazing Grammy Susan, made one beautiful red riding hood as seen here, being modeled by Miss Milk Belly herself.

I thought it would be cute to have a photo booth where each guest could dress up and pose for a picture with her basket for granny, but my little one was the only one who wanted to do this.  

We began with snacks of fruit.  I tried to make the beautiful "Marshrooms" that I found here, but they did not look as beautiful as they did in the picture that inspired me.  I wasn't sure how to keep the apple tops from sliding off the marshmallows.  Toothpicks seemed risky with such little kids, but the marshmallow fluff I used as glue was too slippery.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that I'm not the first mama to fail at something she saw on Pinterest, so I'm not going to let it get me down.  

My wonderful friend Laura painted hands and faces,

We played "Pin the Hood on Little Red" with the game board courtesy of The Mister.

Then it was time to sing our baby into another year.  I wish I knew what she was thinking here.

Once again our favorite birthday cake bakery did not disappoint and created this delicious cake to fit our theme:

After the cake, it was time for our final craft, decorating our very own basket to take to grandmother's house.  I looked long and hard to find a craft that would fit our theme, but this was silly.  Little kids like to paint, regardless of what it is.  It's more about the sensation of touching and pushing paint than creating a final product.  

Really, this could be said about children's parties in general.  Instead of obsessing over themes I should savor the pushing paint, the process, the moment, the gathering.  I spent a lot of time planning thematic crafts and games, but that was more for me than my youngest daughter.  At the end of the day, when I asked her about her favorite part of the party, she said it was "playing with balloons with my friends."  

Channeling Diego

  Little Tiger LOVES animals.  For her, watching Go, Diego, Go! is not merely entertainment--it is career research.  She spent about six months wanting to be an "animal rescuer" when she grows up before deciding instead on the more domestic occupation of veterinarian.  When the Winter Program Guide for Lake Erie Nature and Science Center (LENSC) came out a few months ago, I read about the "All Access Pass" and knew that was something Little Tiger and I had to experience together.  

LENSC  is a place we often visit.  In addition to animal displays and a planetarium they're known for diverse and high quality programming for visitors of all ages.   This hour and a half program lead by Wildlife Director Dave Wolf promised "to leave no door unopened" and allow participants to " go hands-on with rarely seen resident animals and find out what they get up to after-hours!"  Both Little Tiger and I were very curious as our adventure began.  It was  like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, except that Dave Wolf is much cooler than Johnny Depp and he showed us amazing animals instead of pedestrian candy.  

One of the first rooms we visited was the "animal kitchen" where the food for all of the animals is prepared.  There were several different labeled bins for the animals' dry food.

Although LENSC does not have any monkeys, they do have some animals that eat this food.  The bright yellow tub reminded me of bananas.

The animal kitchen housed two refrigerators.  The first one held mostly produce and contained items that could be found in the refrigerators of most suburban families.  The second fridge stored food for the meat-eating animals and looked like what the weird sisters from Macbeth would have had in their kitchen if they were really organized and modern refrigeration practices had been in use during their time.  

Dave Wolf shared a wealth of information about animals, animal care and the history of LENSC as we toured behind the exhibit areas through classrooms, offices, and places where injured animals are taken in, examined and rehabilitated.  At one point we found ourselves in one of the storage rooms and I saw where the ducks from The Great Duck Race are stored when they are not floating down Porter Creek.

Since LENSC primarily uses live animals to educate visitors, we also saw where all of the stuffed animals are being stored until new homes can be found for them.  

By far the most interesting places to visit were the rooms where live animals are housed.  A place called the mews is where the birds of prey  live.
Some, (if not all--I forgot to ask) of these birds were brought to the center after they were found injured in the wild and, due to the nature of their injuries, could not return to their natural habitats.  We also visited the room where other animals are kept while they are being rehabilitated, but it was pretty quiet.  The only two residents were a turtle with  a cracked shell and a kestrel with a broken foot.  

When Mr. Wolf opened the door to the final room on the tour, the place where the non-avian demonstration animals are kept, all five children gasped in amazement before walking in to greet the inhabitants. Little Tiger was disappointed that the hedgehog was asleep, but delighted by the skunks who pranced and paced in their cages.  She was able to pet a chinchilla, one of her favorite animals from a previous LENSC family presentation.

She was able to not just pet, but WEAR this fine fellow:

As I watched her hold this snake and beam, I remembered the first time I was invited to pet a snake on a preschool field trip to LENSC and how I burst into tears, buried my face in my teacher's shoulder and sat on her lap for the rest of the presentation.

There was a quote posted in the intake room that resonated with me and explains the importance of the animal rehabilitation work at LENSC:  

Those who wish to pet and baby wild animals "love" them.  But those who respect their natures and wish to let them live normal lives, love them more.  ~Edwin Way Teale, Circle of the Seasons, 1953

I hope that the latter is the kind of animal lover Little Tiger grows up to be.