Brady's First Kill

Brady (and all of my kids for that matter) want to grow up so fast, and no matter how hard I try to keep them little, the years just seem to blend together. Since he was about 8, he has been asking for a BB Gun...ummm no...think again buddy. We told him, maybe when he is 12. Well he has been saving his lawn mowing money for a long time for anything...something. (He did spend quite a bit of it on new baseball stuff, i.e. bat, gloves, baseball bag). So he approached Nate and I about a pellet gun (kind of the same thing, but a little safer I think.) He loves it, and of course has been properly taught how to use it from his dad.

Even Nate likes to pull it out and shoot at the quail in our yard from time to time. Well one day, I was at lunch with my friends and he called and said very excitedly, "MOM...MOM...I just shot a squirrel! And it crawled under the deck and died!" Oh he was thrilled beyond belief that he had hit his mark.

Now before you go thinking that we are just shooting any random animal that enters our yard, remember that we are right up against the mountain and have quite a bit of wildlife. And now that we don't have a cat to chase small animals from our garden, they have become quite bothersome. So yes he was protecting our garden from the squirrel, so that we'll have some sort of harvest in the fall.

Brady did have to take care of his kill. I wasn't going to do it for him. I've joked with him that if he does ever shoot a quail, he has to pluck it and eat it for dinner. (Really don't know if I'll live up to that threat though, since I'd have to most of the work.)


I wonder if he'll turn out to be a hunter or not?

He wanted a shot with his gun in the picture, so Zack was volunteered to hold the squirrel.