Have read this once before but good to read it again and it still touches me in the same way. Thank you for posting it because THIS time I have saved it!! Such a sweet story!! My mom was also one to feed and care for any stray creature to cross her path - I think that may be where I got my love for animals. I was forever bringing her baby birds and assorted tiny creatures that she would "nurse" in makeshift cardboard hospitals. She was also a nurse and I thought she could make anything well again - because she never gave up! Now, I see the same traits in my own children and so glad!!