Klark the Crow

When I was a child we had a  crow that would come to our deck and take the sparkly things we would leave for him.  We called him Augie and he came pretty often for a long time.  Once we had more dogs and cats he stopped coming as often.  I now have a pet crow I call Klark, he is the one on the right, his friend Contessa is on the left.  I spell his name with a K because he isn't any ordinary Clark.  He comes for bread pieces when I whistle for him. I don't feed him every day for I don't want him to depend on my crumbles and get lazy.  Crows have facial recognition and some days when I walk along my road he will find me and sail above me asking for treats.  When I whistle he comes and sits in the tree near my deck and waits for me to rip up the bread and toss it down to the ground below.  I then  put a few pieces on my rail. He will take one piece then call to his buddies that the Lady has fed us.  They all swoop in and feast along with Klark.  He will wait until they leave then eat the bits on the rail.  He doesn't let me get too near. If I have been forgetful about feeding for a few days he will come to the rail at the time of day he knows I sit in my recliner to do my morning quiet time.  He is respectful and does not caw but paces back and forth looking in at me as if to say Lady are you forgetting something.  I love Klark and for now he is pet enough for me.  As a child I had tons of pets, we had a monkey named Betsy.  She loved my Dad and was very protective of him.  When one of my sisters sat to close to Dad, Betsy bit her and had to go.  We gave Betsy to the local pet store but the first night she let out all the other animals from their cages so they called to say take her back.  She lived out her life at a local zoo. We had a few memorable cats also.  Blackie was a great cat who wandered into our lives when I was 2 and stayed until I was 19.  He was a great cat who would be outside most of the day and come in at night to snuggle.  Mousie was our wild cat, she would let you pet her but she wouldn't let you catch her to be spade.  Mousie had many litters of kitties all which we had to find homes for, something that got old quick for my folks. My sister and I had a series of kitties which were ours, Their was BG who had a blue eye and a green eye, Fluffy and  Puffy  which were fluffy and puffy. You can see we were not very creative with names.  My brother had a skunk named Flower who had it's sent glad removed. We also had many dogs, We were the first house on the road of our neighborhood and back in those days people dumped off dogs if they didn't want them.  We took many a dog to the humane society.  Perkins our spaniel became king of the clubhouse near us.  The golfers would give him rides in their carts and flip him burgers off the grill. As I look back on all the dogs and cats and other animals I realize I am not ready to have a pet again except for my Klark.  I lost too many dogs to the people speeding down our road not looking for kids or dogs running out in front of them.  My children had a few pets but as each one died I cried for a few days.  I realize my heart is still too tender, I can't do loss yet.  My daughter has a wonderful kitty named Mowgli and I love on him whenever I can.  He satisfies my pet yearnings.  My friends let me borrow their dogs too which is so kind of them.  This is Gunner the faithful protector of one of my friends.  So for now I will love Klark , Mowgli and Gunner and the numerous other friends pets but Klark will have to be my only pet.