Lately a lot of the posts here for the garden have focused on adopting abandoned animals, fostering and the challenges of training puppies and keeping them safe in the garden. It wasn't really my intention to see our blog be centered on pet issues and yet what has come through from these experiences has been the discovery of more of nature's magic. There it was; plain as the nose on my face!
Fostering really is Nature's way. You see birds and dogs and cats do it. This points to me of how very important it is that people who are drawn to helping other creatures, including humans, follow through on their feelings and their inspirations. This is a natural instinct among living beings.
My thoughts drift to 2005, when I was freshly inspired by my calling to the garden and the wisdom it spoke to me. This came to be just weeks before Katrina bore down on the Gulf Coast of the US. At that time people came together to help each other. Multiple levels of government and specialists in safety and rescue with almost unlimited funds at their disposal seemed unable to step up to help without tripping over red tape and politics.
Fostering is what was arranged for people who had nowhere to go after government assistance ended and there were still no homes available for those left homeless in Louisianna and elsewhere! It might not be what people call it but it works out to the same sort of thing.
Right now in the United States and Canada there are countless living beings who need your help. One of the easiest ways to help is fostering. If you have the room in your home, foster children or even families. If you don't have that sort of room but still have that space in your hearts and your yards; foster dogs, cats, rabbits, pot bellied pigs, horses or other animals in need. Seek out local shelter and animal rescue groups and learn what's needed in your area. Offer those groups your administrative or fundraising skills if you can't possibly foster people or animals.
In these hard times many families and their pets will suffer without some sort of assistance. As a foster mother for Jack Russell Terriers I can attest to the needs out there that arise out of family break ups, the loss of a family bread-winner, and sudden life changes that prevent some people from being able to continue to care for family pets. None of these situations can be controlled by the pet and they come to their neediness out of no fault of their own. Animals require attention and love, exercise and socialization and these needs don't end as changes occurr in their lives.
If you've ever had the inclination to help - consider it again and make a few enquiries, someone will be happy to learn you're interested in helping. You might get a big sloppy kiss from some loveable pup for your efforts, but heck, it could be a lot worse!
The cone-head center of these golden beauties will provide food to small songbirds this fall and winter. As they select their free lunch they will inevitably scatter seeds on the ground. Some of those seeds will sprout and expand the black-eyed susan plantings! Nature plays an active hand in our garden.
We pick and scatter the seed pods these plants produce along our fence line each autumn to guarantee a future crop of colorful hollyhocks. They are bi-annuals and with a little help from us grow into the prettiest privacy screen every summer!
