My May 24 issue generated a large batch of reader mail. I'm sharing some of these letters and I'm hoping you enjoy them as much as I did!

I loved your bunny story. You are right about organized animals, if we can just observe them.

I had a small flock of sheep who would line up every morning to go from the barn out to the pasture. The one at the front of the line would look behind her to be sure everyone was in line before they started moving.

They would graze until 11:00 am and then they would run back to the barn, as though they would be late, to start cudding. I could set my clocks by it.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you sheep are stupid. In some ways they are smarter than we are.
 

-- Cathy from Maryland 
 

My daughter had a big tom cat she raised from a kitten. She dressed him in doll clothes and pushed him in a stroller. 

When they both got older, he would follow her to the bus stop and in the afternoon he would go back and wait for the bus to return. She would then scoop him up and tote him back to the house.

You could set the clock by his trip to the bus stop every afternoon. 
 

-- Nancy in Texas, faithful reader since 2004
 

Thank you for these fun facts about how organized animals are, including ants.

Ants showed me how amazing they are in the summer of 1972. I was living in Cuernavaca, Mexico while attending school there.

One day outside during break time, I watched a line of ants walk up to a dead iguana on the sidewalk. The iguana was a good 11 inches long, and the ants were just the very-small black kind.

As I watched, this line of ants neatly surrounded the iguana and, in unison, walked in closer to it, lifted it off the ground, and carried it away!  I had known that ants could carry many times their weight, but seeing how organized they were was astounding.

It brought to mind Proverbs 6:6-8 in the Bible:  
 

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.
 

It gave me respect for these little pests. I still don't let them do their thing inside my house, of course.

A few years ago I had a large candy cane inside its unopened clear plastic wrapper. Ants had made their way into the wrapper and I was busy, so I put it outside to deal with later. When later came, the candy cane and the ants were completely gone. Only the clear wrapper remained, still in its original shape. So I simply picked it up and tossed it into the garbage.

Keep sharing your wonderful tips, Maria. They are a real day brightener and often invaluable.
 

-- Jean Aragon

Hi Maria,
 

One of my cats hops up on the bathroom vanity every morning and waits for me to put the cold water on at a trickle so she can get a drink. If I am late getting up, she will come to the bed and meow until I get up. She DOES have a water dish, but likes it right out of the faucet.
 

Another of my cats loves to climb in my lap in the evening and have me pet her and scratch behind her ears. If I stop she will reach out with one paw and tap me on the hand so that I will resume!

-- Dottie