Two deer walk through the "city" within the "city"

Attorneys have a soft side too.

As I write this, the temperature outside is 45 degrees. One day a couple weeks ago (during an early sunshine phase), we actually had a 60 degree high. The air smells clean. Newly washed, and full of the promise of spring.

Leaf buds are starting to burst forth on deciduous trees in the yards of our neighborhood and its small park, situated on the outskirts of downtown Vancouver Washington. Daffodils and dogwood trees are suddenly coming into bloom. We are within the city, but it feels like we aren't at all.

The chill of winter is fading. One resident cottontail rabbit has returned to her annual nesting spot under the spruce tree in our side yard. She eats tender grass shoots in the green lawn below our kitchen window in early morning and late evening hours. Soon she will have company, little ones grazing alongside her.

In a first light of dawn walk through the woods three days ago, I roused three adult black tail deer from their resting beds along the trail. They walked off slowly, tails flicking as they looked back over their shoulders at me, only slightly annoyed at my intrusion.

As we strolled around the block last week, my wife and I learned (from one of our neighbors) that just an evening or two prior, a cougar was spotted chasing a doe out of those same woods, across a neighbor's lawn.

Coyotes frequent our neighborhood, too. I have seen them trotting through yards, remarkably unwary, on more than a few occasions.

Over the last several months, the skies over our neighborhood have been frequented by a family of bald eagles. Often seen floating high above with outspread wings circling on wind currents, studying the ground below. Twice I've seen them drop out of seemingly nowhere, dash across just overhead at rooftop height, in each instance clutching a small animal in their talons.

Springtime in the city. As nature adapts and adjusts to living with us, and among us. And as we, too, hopefully at least, continue to learn to accept that it should be so.