EDMOND HARRY LUCY

LUCY
Oh, this one is so cute, I want him!

EDMOND
Mmmm... No, this one, right here!

HARRY
So tell me, kids, what are you looking at today?

EDMOND
We'd like to adopt a small animal, but we don't know which one to choose.

LUCY
I'd like a Garden Dormouse, they're so cute.

EDMOND
And I'd like a bird, they're so pretty!

HARRY
Why do you want to adopt an animal?

EDMOND
That way we could have a new friend to play with. We could keep him in our room and uh...

LUCY
We could hold him, and pet him, and give him lots of love, and hugs and kisses.

EDMOND
You know, a small animal isn't a toy. It won't like to be held and get kisses.

LUCY
Mine will! I know my dormouse will love my hugs and kisses.

EDMOND
Does that mean we can't adopt an animal?

HARRY
Taking an animal out of the wild wouldn't be good for him. He'd lose his natural instincts.

LUCY
What if we just play with him for a while, then take him back afterward?

HARRY
No. If you do that, he'll be cast out. He'll no longer find his place in the family nest.

LUCY
So we can't do anything, that's not fair.

HARRY
As a general rule, you should always leave nature alone, but maybe we can do something to help it.

LUCY
What?

EDMOND
What?

HARRY
Even if we can't adopt an animal, we can still do something to help nature protect them.

LUCY
Oh! That's what this drawing shows us.

EDMOND
Wow, look how funny this little house looks. What is it?

HARRY
It's an insect hotel. It's a place where all sorts of insects can take cover and lay their eggs somewhere warm, even in Winter.

EDMOND
I know what that is. It's a nesting box for birds.

HARRY
Very good. It's a place where birds can get away from predators and safely make their nest.

LUCY
Hey! What if we made a bunch of them?! We could hang them everywhere, on our windows and on the branch of our chestnut tree.

EDMOND
Great idea! That way we could have birds singing near us all day long.

LUCY
That'd be a nice change from dad's singing.

HARRY
 Nesting boxes aren't decorations you can just hang on trees. And it's not because you put one up that a bird will necessarily make a nest in it. For example, almost all swallows return  each year in the same nest they previously built.

LUCY
Too bad, it would've been really great to have a bunch of birdhouses hanging from the chestnut tree.

HARRY
We can't have them hanging from the chestnut tree, but we can install them all around the pond!

LUCY
Around the pond?

HARRY
As a matter of fact, I just dug a pond to promote biodiversity.

LUCY
Bio what?

HARRY
It means biological diversity, and it's the wide variety of species that live in a given area, like animals, plants, and insects...

EDMOND
Oh I understand, the pond will attract a lot of different animals.

HARRY
Exactly. The more variety of species there are, the more life there is. The Earth is nourished, and the plants, insects, and animals can multiply. We can help nature out by building shelters using whatever elements we can find.

EDMOND
We can make perches for the birds.

LUCY
And a cave for the frogs.

HARRY
Exactly! You can build a whole village around the pond. So now, you understand.

LUCY
Yay!

EDMOND
Yay!