Monday, March 23, 2015

Jake Loves Animals

Our boy Jake has a such a tender heart for animals.

A wonderful trait he inherited from his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather on the Lighten side. 

All animal lovers.   



Over the years he has had many opportunities to spend time with animals of all shapes and sizes.





He was the first of all our kids to "get his own pet."  A beta fish named Peyton (after Peyton Manning).

Some of his greatest sorrows have come from seeing animals in pain.

He pretty much flipped a gasket while watching the Life of Pi - when the hyena kills the gorilla.

Totally lost it.

He just loves animals and hates to see them hurt.

Which is such a great trait - total compassion and love for Heavenly Father's creations.

Well last summer he and his buddy Luke caught a toad.

I can't remember now what they named him, but they were very intent on keeping him and treasuring that little thing forever.




Only problem was they had previously caught another toad that died not too long after that.

Jake was so, so sad.

So I talked to Jake about it, and told him he should let it go back into the wild so that it will live.

Toads aren't meant to be kept in captivity right?

Or at least we didn't want the same thing to happen to this poor little fella as the last one.

After some time he understood it was probably best and we set out on a hill behind our house to let him go.






He was still sad to part with his little scaly friend, but there were a whole lot less tears than watching the other die.

A proud mom moment that day, to watch my son give up something he really wanted to keep for the better of something else.

Since that time Peyton the fish has passed on, and we even got him another one named, Alpha, who also did not make it.

Both times he was super sad.  But at least he is learning about loss (albeit in a small way) and dealing with it.

We frequently tell him that our beloved dog, Daisy, will someday die too.

Not sure if knowing will help him when the time comes but at least he knows it will happen.

Hopefully she has another few years, because we will all be super sad when she is gone.

But maybe no one more so than him.  


Tender boy.