It's just that it's delicate.

This marks the first post here at Owl Eyes that I've actually had a legitimately hard time writing. Granted, this is a young blog - but still, my heart actually aches a little.

Friday afternoon, I was in a terrible mood. It doesn't matter why; we'll just leave it at that. I was outside doing yard work, letting myself wallow, when all of a sudden I heard my mom and sister yelp that they had found something. I ran over, and it turned out to be a nest of baby bunnies. Most of them scattered, but one stayed: that sweet little guy you see above.

[To avoid the inevitable comments that we shouldn't have picked him up: we've had nests of baby bunnies before, and the mother always comes back. When I was younger, I was foolish and wanted to keep one, and I picked it up all the time (which I shouldn't have, I know) and the mother came back even then. Besides, my sister had already touched them accidentally when she discovered the nest, so we figured a few minutes for pictures wouldn't hurt!]

Holding that sweet little creature - touching its new, soft fur with my fingertips, feeling the rhythm of its little breaths - I completely forgot why I was angry.

dress: Modcloth | headband: Forever 21 | tank top, cardigan, shoes: Target

And then, to further lighten my already ecstatic mood, I went over to our arbor, where we often get a robin's nest. It had been empty just a few short weeks before, but when I climbed up, I discovered:

Once I learned the baby birds were there, I was thrilled. I hadn't thought they were there, but now that I did know, I could keep an eye on them and make sure that this nasty neighborhood cat didn't come and kill them. I see this cat only in the springtime, only when it comes to kill our baby birds.

The next day, my mom and I went over to the rabbit's nest and found all four babies sleeping soundly. We checked on the baby birds - all still there.

I wish I could say the story ended there.

Unfortunately, yesterday morning, tragedy struck. My mom happened to be looking out the kitchen window in time to see - you guessed it - that awful orange cat, carrying away the baby bunnies, as the mother could only stand and watch. She called me over, and shooed away the cat, but it was too late. The baby birds, thankfully, were undisturbed. But the rabbit's nest was empty.

We had seen the cat run into the shed, so later that afternoon, we entered - cautiously - and found the bodies of two of the little bunnies, including the one we had held in the pictures. We buried them in a corner of our garden.

We were devastated. It's an indescribably heavy feeling to bury the new life you held just days before - no matter how small the life.

But thankfully, I don't have to end the story there either.

Yesterday in the evening, my dad discovered another robin's nest - this time, in a place where a cat couldn't get to - containing a single blue egg. So, if all goes well, we'll have at least one baby robin to watch grow up - and if I have anything to say about it, we'll have more than just the one. I know it's impossible to watch the nest 24/7, and there's only so much I can do anyway, but I want those babies to make it.

And as I stood in the kitchen doing the dishes last night, I watched as my brother-in-law went over to our wood and stick pile so he could get our bonfire started - only to see a tiny creature zoom out of the pile and run to the nearest bush to hide.

We have at least one survivor.

The cat is still out there, and I know there is so much that could go wrong, and it's the circle of life and all that...but I can't help but believe in that little guy.