Jerome

I just have to share this . . . . So stinkin' cute that mom of mine! My dad wrote this. I merely cut and pasted it from my email. Enjoy!

In mid-June Pat came home from teaching her high school Seminary class and found a baby robin sitting in the driveway. He was no bigger than a golf ball. She brought him into the house and dug up some worms in the garden to feed him. She named him Jerome. Most baby birds die within a few days. Not Jerome, he thrived under Pat's care. Soon he was begging for more worms than Pat could find in her garden. She began to buy fishing worms at the local minute mart. Jerome became very tame. Pat had an old hamster cage which became his home. She would take him outside when she was feeding her rabbits, chickens and sheep. While weeding the garden she would take the bottom off his cage so he would learn how to catch his own worms in the grass. Inside the house she would open his cage and he would hop on her finger. He would fly around and land on her shoulder. In the mornings he would hear her coming down the stairs and start squawking for more worms. The whole family would take turns feeding him.

The grandchildren loved to see him. He would sit on their fingers too. One day Pat figured out how much she had spent on worms for Jerome. It was over $150. Jerome was big enough to leave her care. She made sure he could catch his own worms, and at the end of July he was set free. He hung around for weeks. Pat could hear his distinctive chirps from the old maple tree near her bedroom window.

It's mid-August now and she doesn't hear him any more but whenever a robin lands in the back yard or in a tree near her garden and looks down at her, she's sure that its Jerome, just checking up on her.

They say all dogs go to heaven. So do hamsters, goldfish, guinea pigs, turtles, cats, parrots, white rats, lambs, goats, milk cows, chickens and little robins. Pat has raised 15 children. That's nothing compared with the hundreds of pets and animals she has helped her children and her 4-H kids care for.

Some day, hopefully years from now, when we get to heaven, we will see one of Heavenly Father's choice daughters surrounded by a great multitude of children, grandchildren, and hundreds of Gods creatures including one little grateful robin sitting on her shoulder.