Tuesday Grayson and I drove out to Wildcare to deliver Grayson's donation of critter chow. There had to be 80 to 100 pounds of bird seed, rabbit chow and cracked corn. It took three people a couple of trips to unload all of it.

The staff was helpful and welcoming, and of course grateful for the donation. I could tell Grayson was proud. And I was proud of him.

One of the staff members took G around the entry building and let him see some of the animals in residence: a red-eared slider with a head injury. An orphaned opossum. Some doves or pigeons with a virus. There were several hawks, an owl, some ducks and a porcupine. There was a young roadrunner that raced back and forth the length of its cage that Grayson was very interested in. He's never seen a real roadrunner before, just the one on Wile E. Coyote. He asked lots of questions and the staffer was kind enough to answer all of them very thoughtfully. Grayson offered to help feed all the animals, and was disappointed to learn that he can't volunteer until he's 16.

Then a woman came in with a bat that had been captured in someone's home. At first we just peered into the little fabric tent in which she brought it in, but she was nice enough then to reach in and bring it out so we could see it better. She identified it for us as Mexican freetail bat, and pointed out to us the adorable little mousey tail that gives it its name (the tail hangs "free," rather than being attached by a membrane to the body as it is in other bats). Then she gently turned it around so we could see its wonderful little face with its big ears and upturned snout. "It looks just like a Ferengi on StarTrek" she told us.

It was a good experience for us both, and I'm grateful to the folks at Wildcare for making it so. It's amazing what they are up against, managing, feeding and rehabilitating these orphaned and injured wild things. It's an heroic and noble undertaking.

From there we went right out to Target so Grayson could spend some of his birthday money on a new Nintendo DSi and a game in which huge insects and scorpions do battle with one another.