Dear Prudence,
My house is at the end of a long street bordering the woods, and I garden and raise rabbits and chickens. Recently some neighborhood kids have started showing up while I’m out in the yard, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the evening. They’re 5 and 7 years old, and they’re polite and clean but always hungry. They never refuse food, although I’ve never had children myself, so I’m not sure if that’s unusual. They don’t belong to any of my immediate neighbors and can’t or won’t give me their mother’s phone number. If I give them a note for their mother, I never hear back. They once spent close to six hours with me while I worked in the garden. If they were older I wouldn’t worry, but my mother didn’t let me wander around that long by myself even back in the ’80s. They’re good kids, and I’m concerned that they are often alone and out of school. They don’t show any signs of abuse or neglect, other than sometimes wandering around alone on a weekday afternoon. Should I call Child Protective Services?
—Good Fences Make Good Neighbors