By PATTIE MIHALIK

newsgirl@comcast.net

While I’ve been a nature lover all my life, the older I am, the more I love all forms of nature.

I especially notice and appreciate all kinds of birds and animals.

The little bunny that runs across my lawn, the ducks that do their funny bobbing in our pond, even the crows that sing a refrain that sound like they are laughing at us — I like seeing and hearing it all.

When we visited an old Florida ranch I got a kick out of seeing all the newborn animals. Our guide said we were lucky when a mama boar showed up with her three little ones for the first time.

I got a kick out of the way the little ones were like super-active kids everywhere, running off in every direction. So there I was with my camera, enjoying myself as I was clicking away.

We were all on what they called a swamp buggy that allowed us to travel through mud, water and bumpy pastures so we could get close to all the animals. One funny thing happened when a longhorn steer decided it wanted a better look at us.

The steer poked its head in the door and seemed to be checking out the crazy passengers with their cameras. My best shot of the day was the close-up of the steer’s big head inside the swamp buggy.

Older folks seem especially fond of seeing all kinds of wildlife. But the 30-something photographers on the trip were as enthusiastic as we seniors.

Lately, I’ve been marveling at how animals seems to have human emotions. A picture of the dog that stayed for days at the grave of its owner moved us all.

In my housing development we witnessed another sad event when a woman texting on her cellphone didn’t see the two sandhill cranes foraging for bugs on a lawn. Her car ran over and killed one of the magnificent cranes we all loved watching.

Sandhill cranes mate for life and always travel together. For weeks we witnessed the lone crane crooning for its lost mate.

In any body of water in Florida one must be on guard for the alligators. I keep my eye on the two that live in the pond behind my house and am leery about working in my yard when they are around. I can’t tell you any warm and fuzzy stories about alligators because there aren’t any. While many of our residents and visitors love the alligators, I am not one of them. I don’t mind seeing them from a distance, but I sure don’t want to get too close.

Here in Florida we also have a lot of manatee in our waterways. They’ve been nicknamed “sea cows” because they really are as big as cows. But they’re far more appealing and intuitive.

I just interviewed two women with an interesting story to tell about the caring nature of manatee. While the two women were out in the bay on their paddleboards they saw two women in a canoe. Suddenly the canoe tipped over and the two women were in the water screaming, “Help! We can’t swim!”

Fortunately for them one of the paddleboarders was an experienced lifeguard. She looked at her companion and said, “OK, you’re about to make your first rescue. You take the woman closest to the boat and I’ll help the one who’s screaming.”

Now, at this point I have to mention the women in the canoe did everything wrong. First of all, someone who can’t swim should never take a canoe out to open water where wind, current and wave action can change at any minute. And most of all, no one should ever go out on open water without a PFD, what we once called a life vest.

The two nonswimmers weren’t wearing vests. If the two paddleboarders weren’t there they probably would have drowned.

One of the hysterical women was making her rescue difficult.

“I had a good hold on her but she kept waving her arms and fighting me. I couldn’t get her to calm down,” said the lifesaver.

What happened next fills us with awe at the intelligence and compassion of the manatee.

“One of the big manatees came next to the flailing woman, keeping its body next to her. It calmed her down enough for me to swim to shore. The amazing thing was that the manatee stayed next to the woman until we got her to safety,” related the lifeguard.

This week I marveled at the intelligence and intuition of parrots while I was doing a story on the Parrot Outreach Society. At any given time volunteers care for 150 to 180 exotic parrots that were abandoned or given away by their owners.

The parrots are well cared for while they wait to be adopted. But they won’t accept just anyone. One parrot there for years bit anyone who got close to it, until the day a guy in a baseball cap walked by. The mean parrot reached out its leg to get the guy to stop, then gave him kisses. The guy adopted the bird.

“Parrots know who they want and who they don’t,” said the manager.

I don’t know about you but I never tire of animal stories. Tell me your stories and I’ll share them with readers.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.