Learning Responsibility

As regular readers already know, we have already lost a kitten at the farm. Whether that cat rode into town (& freedom) under the hood of the Suburban or ended up coyote poop is anybody's guess, but one thing is for sure....that loss got the kid's attention.
From that time, they are extremely concerned with the day to day welfare of the animals and it is clear they do not want to lose another of their cats. They won't let the cats get too far away from them and once, when we ended up leaving a cat up by the calf pens, they were freaking out and there was no convincing them that the cats could figure out how to get home (even though it was within sight of the house.)
The other day when we took that family photo with the livestock (see Jessica's blog) Sterling was complaining about having to carry the cat all the way home so I told him to just put it down. He wouldn't do it because he was afraid it would get eaten. We then informed him that Coyotes are mostly nocturnal so he was safe putting the kitten down as long as it was daytime. His response? "But what if the coyote hasn't had breakfast yet?" Priceless.
At any rate, it is kinda cool to see that the kids are starting to learn a bit of responsibility for things.