What a fabulous story, Jane! Animals definitely have an Amber Alert system — I’ve heard it myself.

This story is off the Amber Alert subject but similar. We were having breakfast on our porch watching the wild ducks eat the corn and squirrels eat the peanuts we put out each morning. Suddenly, we heard a loud squirrel bark from a tree at the townhome next to ours that is closer to the street. Immediately, all the ducks took flight and the squirrels raced to the tops of trees.

My husband and I remarked how odd that was. A few seconds later, a cat, who actually lives across the street and whom we’ve never seen in our backyard before, came walking across our yard in the location the ducks had vacated a minute or so before.

Obviously, a squirrel in a tree closer to the street saw the cat coming and barked out a warning, but what is really interesting is that the ducks seemed to understand squirrel language! They took flight before the squirrels on the ground reacted to the barked warning.