The Mama cat had baby cats. That is what Sook was calling to say. Five little orange stripy ones that don’t even have their eyes opened yet.
“They are SO cute” she said. “I am going to adopt two of them as soon as they are old enough. Jayden and Imani want two of them too. Mama and kittens both seem to be doing fine. I love cats!”
So now there are going to be five more cats here. They will be adopted and they won’t just live on the street, so that is good. I am not so afraid of cats that live with people. Bibi’s sister Celia has two boy cats that are nice to me, Jack and Lewis. Lewis kissed me once. They always find a mouse when they stay with us. That is what they are so good at.
Pedro went with Jayden and Imani and their parents to pick out their fruit trees. They came home with a pear tree, a peach tree, a fig tree and two raspberry bushes. Everybody was so excited. Sara and her brothers and sisters all went over to help decide where everything should go.
Pedro, his father and Jayden all took turns with the two shovels. They started digging and filled the holes with magic pellets and water before they planted. It took a long time.
Pedro brought Hugo out. He danced around in the dirt and he even helped dig deeper. Everybody laughed at that. But rabbits know more about digging than anyone.
Sook brought her own shovel when she came over to help the boys plant the fruit trees. She said her aunt has a fig tree in Queens that is always full of sweet figs in the season.
Then the people sat down and drank lemonade and looked at all the new trees and talked about the five new baby cats.
Sara and her sisters said: “We like cats but we want bunnies”
Sook decided she wanted to grow more things than just herbs for tea. Even though they were a little tired from digging holes for fruit trees, all the children went over to her backyard and helped her dig more spots for cilantro, basil, oregano, thyme and dill. Plenty of magic pellets went in the ground first, the same as for the big trees. They also planted catnip.
On the way back they peeked into the abandoned house where the mama cat is with her baby cats. They were squirming around all together. The kids left food and fresh water for the mama.
Our backyard is full of everything now. Like carrots. We love the green tops as much as the carrot part. We won’t run out of carrots now until wintertime. Bella and Boxer and I play chasing games in our yard. After that we relax in a shady spot. We still love to dig around. Boxer has holes going all over. He dug a secret tunnel to Sara’s family’s backyard just because it was fun. When we poke our heads over there we can see they have more flowers than we ever saw anywhere. No wonder the bees and butterflies love it so much. Their endive, dill and brussel sprouts are growing so much. We have those things too but now we have a secret way to get over to their yard if we ever want more.
Emily didn’t have her bunny babies yet. She keeps getting bigger and bigger and she stays inside a lot so we don’t see her everyday. Hugo comes out and jumps around and nibbles on things and smells noses with us. We are so excited about Emily’s bunny babies.
It is early summertime now. Everything is planted and the worms have never been so happy here ever since the whole time there has been Brooklyn. Now they have five backyards where people are feeding them delicious food scraps and magic pellets every day. The children are still finding people garbage in the soil but they pull it out and throw it away. They will never let it become dirty soil full of bottle caps and plastic spoons ever again.
Now they know they can grow anything they want if they just make the worms happy so they will always be thinking like this. They don’t think of the ground as just something to run around on. They know there is magic going on down there.
When we went inside at night and cleaned each other and heard the bugs singing I started to fall asleep and I thought about that we are very very happy here. Our backyard is such a good place now.
The next time I write I will tell you what happens at the end of summer. Right now I know that everything will keep blooming and blooming. The bees will have a house. Emily’s babies will still be small and very cute. Maybe Jayden and Imani will have raspberries.
There will also be some surprises, because there always are really good surprises.
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Welcome if you’re just joining us! This is the story of three bunnies who moved to Brooklyn, and revolutionized the gardens in the neighborhood, using the magic of something only they can produce. This tale is told by Sandra The Free Range Super Bunny. The working title is: ”Sandra and the Backyard Revolution”
As she has never written a kids book before, we’re sharing this first draft on Substack to welcome your feedback and participation, as we grow our community.
If you are so inspired, we would appreciate your feedback about the content, either at the conclusion or as we go along.
If you would consider becoming a yearly paying subscriber, or a founding member, we will also include your name on the Thank You page of the printed book, of which you will receive an autographed copy (US and Canada)*
We intend to have them printed in time for the holiday season of 2022.
You will receive two chapters a week in your inbox. We’re jumping in with simple text, and illustrations will be added subsequently as they are finalized.
For those just joining us: Sandra has written a whole book on her adventures prior to this. You can read it HERE.
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Sandra and The Backyard Revolution Chapter 13
What a sweet way to end my weekend....thank you very much!
Bye George, Steve has got it! Music comes next with Sandra singing, then Bibi and Farmer George chime in.