Dr. Doolittle

It never ceases to amaze me how animals just love Mike!  So much so that family and friends call him Dr. Doolittle.  He gets his deep love of animals and birds from his mother.  She really loved to watch the birds and always had a lot of feeders out on their property for them.  I have run across old pictures of him feeding a squirrel peanut butter when he was a boy!

When we screened in our deck at the cabin, we had to make sure some of the screens could open so he could fill his bird feeders.  It is the first thing he does when we get to the cabin, no matter how late it is when we arrive.  I have watched wild birds land on his hands and eat seeds out of his palm.  I have seen hummingbirds land on his fingers!  It is really amazing.

Then there are the deer!  He has several generations of deer that come to the cabin and literally look in the windows or screen door waiting for him to come out and feed them apples.  They also eat out of his hands, even the big bucks!  He always says we can't have a mounted deer head over the fireplace because one of his deer might look in the window and say "Oh God, there's uncle Frank!"

At home in Midland, every dog and cat in the house will find its way to Mike when he is sitting down.  He becomes a "pet mattress".  We have 3 dogs and 5 cats and they all love Mike.  And he is always willing to scratch a head or rub a belly.  And whenever he walks into a store that has a "store pet" it is the first thing he goes to and they follow him around the store until we leave.  He has a strange gift.  Another legacy from his mother, Maisie.  I am sure it still makes her smile.