Very glad you are surviving Arif. May ALLAH protect and preserve you. IMHO I have found that in truth, most all of us must conform, and to some degree compromise our beliefs. Such is the nature of life itself. It has been said "No man is an island." This applies to our workplace, laws of our communities and countries. There is nearly always someone more powerful than ourselves. An employer, a government, or community consensus. It is not human nature for everyone to get along. I have observed even my GOD appears to work in ways I can never understand. I just have to play the cards I've been dealt, the best I can. Meanwhile I try to find things to enjoy in life; such as the beauty of flowers.

HTown, don't be too comfortable with them. I've been feeding the ones in our yard off and on for awhile, but I never get too close to them. No matter how "familiar" you may be with them, they still have an instinctive distrust for people and they have the potential to be dangerous. Most people don't like them because they've had bad experiences with them, just like many other types of wildlife that invade or wreak some form of destruction on their property, and that's completely understandable. They can also be aggressive towards pets. I made a point of mentioning to my neighbors that there were raccoons active in our area. If you get to feeding them and slack off, they could move on to another property where they're not as welcome and that could have negative consequences for the neighbor, the raccoon or both. I'm not saying don't feed or enjoy them, but make sure you educate yourself on them before you get into it on a regular or semi-regular basis. Make sure there are no means for them to access your house including the roof and chimney, because once they know where the food is coming from they could try to find an easier way to get to it. It's best not to leave food for them near your house for this reason. One of the first things I did when I knew how much they came around was make sure they couldn't get on our roof from any trees, the area around our deck was sealed, and our chimney cap was secure. I added chicken(Actually smaller gapped fencing than chicken wire) wire around the opening to ensure there was no access.(Something I was going to do anyway to deter the birds that ended up in our living room.) This link I found can cover it a little more indepth. These are just tips, but they can be helpful. Feeding Tips I guess my message is it's fine to enjoy them, but make sure you know what you're getting yourself in for, as there are a few things to consider. :-)

Your friend still needs to be careful. Our daughter had an ex semi-boyfriend get crazy when he got more serious than she wanted to get. She got a restraining order. And things got quiet for about 2 weeks and then he came back with a vengeance. My God, the stuff he did AFTER THE RO was worse than what he had done before. Actually made an imprint of her house key through the lock (I didn't know you could do this)and had a duplicate key made. Bought an apparatus to get into a locked car, etc. Slashed 4 tires of her car. Went into her home, listened to her phone messages and called everyone on her phone list to threaten them if they befriended her over him. He even trashed the businesses her other dates worked at. The scary thing, among others, was that he was in the Coast Guard and was licensed to carry a gun. We hired a PI and did a background search on him. We learned he had done this in several states to other women and simply was transferred to other cities when he became a liability to the Coast Guard. He,too,was a real charmer but a real evil man. The PI followed him and had proof through phone records and pictures and fingerprints on the exterior of her car and in her car as well that he was violating the law. This was done over a period of 6 weeks and it cost us a fortune to have round the clock coverage of this man. But it also gave us protection for our daughter since investigators were right there should he have attempted to harm her. Well, we had proof but the police were dragging their heels. We got in contact with his commander on the base; met with her and he was permanently relieved of his duties. Then 2 weeks later, right after he called my daughter in the middle of the night, rambling and threatening, to explain it was all a misunderstanding, we left our home at 2:00 AM and drove all night to his home (crazy, I know) but we were desperate. We spoke to him and made him a firm offer he couldn't refuse. Well, what we said must have made an impression, because he packed his bags, left town and hasn't been seen there since. And that's been about 8 years ago. The police never did anything because the charmer explained it was simply a love affair gone wrong. Can you believe that?

Well cats of course but I am glad to be reminded here of giraffes. In first grade I was taken to the Zoo in New York. I only remember the giraffes. They were living in a pen next to a path and there was a iron fence of spear shapes. They would eat peanuts out of your hand with their soft mouths but it looked to my young eyes like the spears had to hurt their necks. I eventually made myself a stuffed giraffe. When I was about 18 I went to a zoo in Florida and they had an orphan baby they were keeping in the petting zoo. It was so sad. So there I stood feeling sorry for it and it came up to me and put it's head on my shoulder and sighed so sadly. So sweet. Lots of people must have pictures. Birds are a hoot. As a child my grannie showed us a nest once. We had to be quiet and careful. The babies pretended to be dead. They stuck their little feet into the air and kept their eyes closed. If you were very quiet they would open an eye to check and snap it closed. I dont know what kind they were. I had a house in North Mississippi with a garage and the Tufted titmice babies would sun bath on the roof laid out with their wings spread out like bats and their feet stretched down. I have never seen anything like that in my life. I didnt have a camera at the time. Too weird.