The Family Ances-tree

After Arthur and Tex wrapped up their daily constitutional at the creek, Arthur dropped by his parents, Cletus and Reba’s abode for a brief visit.  After the initial love sharing and breakfast, Arthur began inquiring about the difference between the brothers. His parents knew this day was coming and had been prepared for this for a while. 

Arthur watched his parents closely and could see such love and care flowing between the two. 

Cletus began explaining:

“Your mother and I were young and in our first nesting season.  We had tried several times to bring a family into our lives.  She would have a clutch of eggs; she would sit on them and rotate them.  She took such amazing care of the eggs.  I watched her every day, giving so much of herself, and I was so proud of her.  But repeatedly the eggs rotted.  She was so heartbroken every time. I was too, but I did my best to cover my emotions and give Reba the love and support she needed.  I kept telling her that we were still young, and we probably would do better with time and that I loved her and was so proud of her. Under no circumstances would I look for a new mate.”

Cletus continued explaining his concerns about Reba’s mental and physical well-being.  The continual failure was making Reba struggle with her own self-worth.  She had amazing plans for their life together.

Cletus and Reba had a productive relationship with the creatures at T-Bone’s Place, and they were newlyweds of the community.  The others doted on them and Reba felt she was letting not only her mate down but also the entire community, not understanding her mate’s culpability in the process of procreation.

Cletus explained, “I wasn’t sleeping at night, for seeing the love of my life suffer was very unsettling for me.  Under my own duress, I went to see our friends, Jenny and Jagger.

Jenny and Jagger were, at the time, the parents of the local gopher family. They were very well connected to the community, for underground dwellers.”

Cletus had been keeping the two abreast of their procreation woes and his very real concerns about Reba’s health.

They were very touched by the love Cletus had for Reba, and they had been discussing options to help the young couple.  They had a plan that they needed to discuss with Cletus.

After Jenny and Jagger laid out the plan they had arranged, Cletus agreed, and they put the plan into action.

Cletus explained to Arthur that what they did might have seemed self-centered, but the willing selflessness of the community made it so easy.

Cletus went back home and could see Reba sitting on four new eggs.  He went to her and began trying to get her to leave the nest, but she refused. 

He began to press the issue, and she got kind of ugly by telling him he didn’t know what he was doing and such.  He finally got her to leave by convincing her that she was nasty, for she had been neglecting her own hygiene. She gave him strict how-to instructions and left.

As soon as she arrived at the creek, Jenny and Jagger were waiting, and Jagger, after greeting Reba, left in haste.

Jagger was friends with a crow named Shadow.  Shadow was a local loner.  His circle of friends was small, and he wasn’t perceived as part of the community.  But over the years, after patience and effort on Jagger’s part, the two slowly became friends. 

Jagger and Jenny had been getting around the Bear Creek area, speaking with acquaintances who did not know Cletus and Reba, trying to get surrogate eggs.

 No Yolk Man.LOL

They found three donors, but none were mockingbirds.  The origins of the eggs were not disclosed to Cletus. 

The gopher family got with Shadow and managed to get the three eggs relocated to a convenient nesting location, where they had a sort of midwife to sit on them.  The midwife was a cat squirrel, who would one day be Steve’s mother.  Her name was Suzie.

Shadow caringly brought the new eggs, and with Cletus’ help, removed three eggs and replaced them with the donated eggs.  Only Shadow and Jagger knew the fate of the removed eggs.

Reba and Jenny were chatting when Reba realized the time and had to leave to get back to the nest.

At that moment, Jenny began telling her about her uncle who was on his deathbed and began putting on a pitiful show of tears that had Reba all wet. 

Soon Jagger returned, telling Reba he would take it from there, and he began to comfort Jenny.  As soon as Reba left, there was a great big high five between Jenny and Jagger.

Reba made her way back home, and she thanked Cletus for nudging her off the nest.  Getting away for a bit was mentally and physically stimulating.

He watched nervously, as she climbed into the nest and turned the eggs and sat back down on them, not noticing the black feather next to the nest.

After the eggs hatched, Cletus realized that one of the original four eggs had hatched, too. And it was no time at all before Cletus had to fess up and tell Reba what they had done.

 The names had been changed to protect the innocent.

She tried to get upset, but the sight of the chicks pleased her so much that she just couldn’t stay mad.

Arthur listened attentively to every word from Cletus and Reba, and it was all amazing. 

Arthur began filling his parents in about Tex and the new female at T-Bone’s Place, named Rosa. He told them about Tex’s take on Rosa.  Arthur just couldn’t understand where Tex got his bias from, when he literally knew nothing about her.

 Arthur explained that she was a beautiful young Tropical Mockingbird and was interested in Tex.

Arthur was totally confused because all four of them were reared the same, with equal love and attention, and all four, to this day, loved their parents, with no bias.

Cletus and Reba were concerned and asked Arthur if he would come get them when Rosa was totally moved into the cedar tree and they would try to correct the learned problem.

Arthur agreed and went back home.