This past December my youngest child and I watched a hawk in our yard, and after I went back inside he swears he saw it swoop and eat something, but we were never sure.

This past week my daughter and I saw another (or possibly the same) red-shouldered hawk swoop from a tree onto our patio, grab a lizard, and take it back into the trees for a snack. I thought he would be excited, and maybe a little vindicated. But I wasn’t prepared for his reaction.

Me: “Hey, C! Do you know what I saw today?”

C: “No, what?”

Me: “A hawk fly down to the patio, grab a lizard, and eat it. So you probably did see something like that in December.”

C: (Horrified) “HE ATE MINI?!?”

Me: “Who’s Mini?”

C: (Still horrified) “Mini. There’s a lizard that lives on the patio and I named it Mini. The hawk ate it?”

Me: “Maybe it was a snake. I don’t really know.”

It was the best pivot I could think of in the moment. I think he got over it quickly, but I didn’t want to ask. Sometimes confirmation is overrated.