You're 'girls' are beautiful Annie! I loved having chickens but when we moved to this large acreage I felt it would be risky to have them as there are so many eagles, hawks, and owls so we gave them to a friend. We would have had to use netting over their run and couldn't have let them free-range. On our previous small acreage they were safer and I never lost one to predators even tho I let them free range in the daytime in the warm seasons. They were relatively safe as we had dogs, sheep, horses, and cattle nearby as guards. They had a fenced run but I liked to let them out so the grass would grow back in their run and they could dig through the manure and compost piles for bugs and eat the slugs and bugs in my garden. They had their dust baths and afternoon naps in the back of my perennial beds near the house so I didn't plant anything in that space. They did leave their droppings on the patio but that was easy to 'wash' into the beds daily as extra fertilizer! Mine were Buff Orpington/Bantam crosses altho were still a decent size and laid good size eggs. Hens can become quite tame and make good pets. My daughter used to carry one around and the hen 'cuddled' up to her! I miss having chickens and also their eggs! Jack is a lovely boy! Does he chirp? My tabby Maine Coon hardly ever does anymore altho did when he first came to us. He seldom ever even meows anymore, guess he gets what he wants/needs without! When he first arrived here to adopt us I didn't know much about Maine Coons and found his voice and chirping strange. The Grands love to pet him and he adores them - he's a 'cuddle' cat. He's 16 pounds altho looks bigger as he has such long fur and needs frequent combing or gets mats. I also have a ginger tabby who is not as big being only 12 pounds, currently using my leg as a pillow!

So sad about Jessica. My daughter walks 1 1/2 blocks to school each day and I walk her. We talk about strangers, the importance of NEVER approaching a car, and how an adult will NEVER need the help of a child to find a puppy, directions, his/her own child, ect. My daughter is a fast runner so I say anytime you are nervous about someone, just run home. I teach her to trust her gut instinct, that when she has a feeling that something isn't right - trust that. Something probably isn't right. My understanding is that she was walking 3 blocks to meet up with friends then as a group they were walking over a mile to school. This is NOT this mother's fault. Her daughter at 10 SHOULD be able to walk that far. Children do it in our town all the time. It is the fault of the sick perpetrator. These parents will beat themselves up and mourn their child for the rest of their lives. My prayers are with them.

Mary - We Californians are still waiting for an apology. In the wake of the awful fires that recently ripped through Southern California (I'm in San Diego), your comment seems particularly insensitive. I don't know if it was a lame attempt at humor, but it would be like my wishing a tornado would blow through your town, or hoping for a hurricane to hit New Orleans, or another terrorist attack to take place in New York. Horribly insensitive to say the least. " I'm with Talley_Sue on the aging in NY thing. New York City is - in my opinion - a wonderful place to spend a significant part of one's early adulthood, esp. if one is single/newly married (no kids), starting a career and/or in graduate school, etc. It's not such a wonderful place to: (1) grow up in (I did), (2) have kids in (I didn't, but know plenty of people who do with whom I spend a significant amount of time with when I frequently visit with my 9 year-old daughter), or (3) grow old in (my mother is 86 and lives in Manhattan). Unless you're uber-rich and have private cars with chauffeurs, and people to schlepp for you, public transportation requires a level of mobility than many aging people (or younger people) do not have (lots of walking and lots of stairs). Talley_Sue's adjective is spot on: NYC can be a harsh place (Having grown up in NYC (Manhattan) and having lived there all of my childhood and most of my early adult life (I left at age 35, but had lived there pretty much continuously with the exception of college and study abroad), and as someone with limited mobility who visits frequently with a young child, I feel that I'm qualified to pass judgment on this. (Unlike patty_cakes, I'll never "take the beach, weather, and other things for granted," and beg to differ that it's "over-rated." Besides, compared to NYC, it not any more expensive and the quality of life is *way* better) The chances that I would want to a small town in rural America for more than a day are somewhere between slim and nil. But different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

If your DD considers her aunt a mom, then her aunt may not have legal rights and responsibilities (which I think is a shame when a child loves someone in that way, but gets no legal protection of that relationship) but it won't stop the child from going to that aunt for advice and to maintain the relationship when she is an adult. Children are not possessions and they do have their own feelings. Sure, there are not many rights for step parents, but if a step parent makes an effort to maintain the relationship with the child after a divorce from/death of the parent, then who does it hurt when the other parent refuses to allow the relationship to continue? The law is clear but parents are supposed to love their children more than they hate the other parent/step parent. Unfortunately they don't always see it that way and in the case of young kids, it's sad that with the passing of time, the step parent is distanced from the child's life. The step parent has no choice. My door is open to my ex's kids and now that they are adults, they can make a choice for themselves. Perhaps too much time has gone by and they will choose to not have a relationship with me. That is sad because I raised them for seven years. I changed diapers, bottles, potty trained, 1st days of school, was room mom, conferences, planned parties, administered care when they were sick & took them to the doctors. I was den mother for cub scouts, took them to dance class/recitals, little league, and everything in between. I was the only mother they had in their day to day life. Their bio mom was on drugs & unable to take care of them or even be a part of their life. When their dad got married, their new step mom didn't want them around and their bio mom didn't come back into their lives until they were in their late teens. They could have had a relationship with me all those years they were suffering with no mother figure but their father decided it was too hard for him for me to be in their lives. If I didn't want to be with him, I couldn't see the kids anymore. It's now ten years later, and they can come to me if they want & I will still do for them as I will always consider them my kids.