Hello.  This is Scarlet Pimpernel.  You can’t hear me right now, but my hello is a melody of hellos and salutations unlike any other hello you could greet.  And today, I have been tasked with the start of a special week of blogs on the 2 Traveling Dogs Dog Blog.  But today, it is the Red Bird Blog.  I am doing the talking.  I am doing the singing.  And it is time for you to listen.  When was the last time you really listened to the birds?

I have shared campsites with Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle and Deputy Digby Pancake, their persons and the Big Blue Treat Wagon RV for almost five months now.  I was here before them, and I will be here after them when they pull out of this campsite next Monday.  Although it has been a bittersweet rival of wits with the RV mirror and demanding more gourmet birdseed every morning, I will miss them.  I appreciated them because they appreciated me.  But alas, our paths seem to be going different ways.

For a red bird, a cardinal like myself, we stay in one area year round.  We don’t migrate.  We don’t want to.  It has been told to me by my family that birds like me live for three years in the wild although several individuals have had life spans of 13 to 15 years. The longevity record for a captive northern cardinal is 28 ½ years!  But I say, why would you want to be in a cage just to live longer? And I suppose that is how the residents in the Big Blue Treat Wagon feel a little bit too.  Actually, I heard them talk.  I am a pretty good eavesdropper. Ok, truth is I paid them to listen.  I have things to do.

I actually wondered when or if the persons were ever going to leave site 166 or the other sites they moved to in-between.  I heard that they were looking for a house, I heard this for months.  I heard what they were looking for and what they weren’t looking for, and as a bird, I could not help them.  I can’t even type this Bird Blog without some help. What I could do was appreciate that beyond being the most handsome bird in the world sharing spaces with the self proclaimed most handsome dog in the world, that there was a lot of handsome going on.  And I felt it a shame to take that away from site 166.

But then they broke the news.  They are pulling out of here next Monday.

As a red bird, my path is one that I love.  I raise three different sets of birds with my partner every summer.  I like sunflower seeds and staying around the same place.  I like the sunshine and breeze and protecting my young.  It is a nice thing to know your path and enjoy it.  And I only hope that the Big Blue Treat Wagon and its bird seed suppliers are starting on a path that they will enjoy.  A path that they are happy with.  Overthinking everything in life can make you actually stop living.

“The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing.”
― Eric Berne

Well, just like you, I have to wait and see where their path is.  Just like me, other animals around here will be telling you their paths this week and what makes them happy.  Isn’t that what all of us really want, whether our lives are short or long? It is how we live the days we have in the best, fulfilling and happy way possible.

I was here when the Big Blue Treat Wagon pulled in back in January.  And I will be here when they pull away.  I won’t be sad, because it was simply a visit full of joy that I won’t let overshadow the part of leaving.  Maybe our paths will cross again.  I have a feeling that they will…maybe even in site 166.

A bird can fly because we believe we can fly.  Yes, we also have wings.  But you do to.  What path will you fly to?  It is time to take off.  Brickle and Digby are ready.

-Scarlet Pimpernel

Have you shopped our online shop?  New designs and products!