As the clock on my computer turns over to what it thinks is a new day (I’m sorry, but despite the fact that it has moved from 11:59PM to 12:00AM, the darkness tells me that it is still the night at the end of my day!) I am faced with my nightly dilemma; what shall I write tonight?
I find myself, as I look around the room where my two boys sleep on the desk and my little girl is curled up on a chair, envying the life of a cat. Eat, sleep, poop, repeat as necessary. Unless, of course, you’re our new, 5 month old kitten. In which case it’s eat, sleep, race around the house like a crazy person attacking anything you think might have moved, eat some more, poop, race around again until you fall asleep mid run. And of course, repeat as necessary.
Instead, I have to think about things like writing something which will get more than 24 hits a day (and that was the very best day I had here on WordPress) since I moved from a platform where I was getting, on a good day, over 100 hits. I have bills to pay, groceries to buy, cat boxes to empty, and the list goes on, but I’m sure you get the point. To be fair, many cats do not live the pampered life mine enjoy, and sadly, too many healthy ones are still put down because humans believe they’re overcrowding.
What would happen if the same approach was taken with humans? “You’re homeless? Ok, we’ll put you in a little cage and if someone doesn’t come along who wants to put a roof over your head, it’s the gas chamber for you! But I have to say, at 22, you’re already too old for anyone to want, so it’s unlikely you’ll leave this place alive.”
Sure, it might solve a bunch of problems, but it is, in fact, no more humane than what we do to cats, dogs, bunnies and other assorted homeless animals every day. But wait! If they were living off the land when we found them, and doing ok, were they really homeless? If you were to ask those animals (and I realize not all who end up in a shelter were living under those conditions), I’m sure they’d tell you that they were doing just fine before some idiot with a cage pulled them out of their world and removed some of their parts. Again, don’t get me wrong. I’m very much in favor of the TNR programs, and of trying to rehome those who live in areas where coyotes run wild.
As cold as this sounds, if the animals who are native to a region are allowed to do what they do best, a natural culling would occur.
Where have all the flowers gone?
But we humans, by nature, have a way of interfering. We’ve built our houses and malls right along what used to be a nature corridor. In so doing, we’ve prevented the mountain lions from hunting the bunnies and larger creatures, the coyotes from hunting a variety of small creatures, the wolves from carrying on their business…and what do you end up with? A totally messed up ecosystem where feral cats are breeding like bunnies, bunnies are invading human territory because there’s not enough food left in the small spaces we’ve left for them, and coyotes wandering neighborhoods killing the humans’ pets who they allowed to run wild, thinking they’d be safe from harm where humans live.
What is a perfect world? A place where humans no longer need to kill each other, and where indigenous animals are allowed to run free.
I just realized that I made a small joke. With so many humans able to justify the killing of another human these days, and our constant need to take up more space, who am I kidding? Is anyone really safe from harm where humans live?
Justifiable homicide.
Humans are an interesting breed. We can justify murder a thousand ways from Sunday. It might be religion (my personal favorite) or it might be voices in their heads, or better still, they felt threatened by someone and felt that killing them would solve the problem. When a grieving family is left behind with, perhaps, children to feed, or a life with great potential is cut short for no good reason, please tell me, exactly whose problem has been solved?
I realize this isn’t my usual posting style, and I apologize if, this time, I’m failing to entertain, but it just hit me tonight that the animals whose numbers we seek to control are a great deal more civilized than we humans. They understand that there’s a food chain, and everyone is on it somewhere. If the food chain is maintained adequately, there’s sufficient food, water and land for everyone. But when someone (read, “humans”) steps in and upsets the equilibrium, chaos ensues. And when chaos ensues, someone loses their life for no other reason than overpopulation.
I guess what brought this on was seeing so many healthy animals who were over 10 years old finding themselves faced with either living in a cage for whatever years they have left, or, more likely, being “euthanized” (pretty word for an ugly thing) because there’s no space for them. I look at them all and wish I had the means to create a huge place where all of the senior animals could live out their lives in comfort and peace. At the risk of sounding cold, I couldn’t care less about the humans. They have more than proven that they can take care of themselves, and take from all of the other species to do so. They’ve proven that if they can rationalize another person’s unworthiness to live, they can and will take matters into their own hands.
Maybe the answer for me is to stay away from the animal shelters, and to especially avoid sitting in their office listening to people’s reasons for surrendering an animal. Frankly, there were a few who should have let the animal run free and made the human live out what little time they’d have left (because nobody would want to adopt them) in a cage or a dog run.
I give so much credit to the young woman behind the counter at the Camarillo Animal Shelter this week, and so many others like her.
To all of the people who take those calls from people wanting to abandon an animal, believing that their reasons are truly good, or even original, my hat is off. To treat these people with politeness and to give them the same care and attention they’d give to someone adopting an animal, while listening to them whine about why they can’t take care of an animal is not something I could do. I’d probably end up in jail for jumping the counter to smack the guy who was turning in his dogs because they chewed things. They’d be dragging me forcibly off of him while I continued to scream: “Have you never heard of obedience school, dumbass? Frankly, you need it more than the dog, and I’ll admit, the dogs are better off without a cretin like you, but I find you abhorrent and would like to use your face to clean the kennels this afternoon…”
{stepping carefully off of the soapbox, tucking stray strands of hair back into the clips and straightening clothes} Ok, I believe I’ve gotten that out of my system. 🙂 Let’s move on, shall we?
My gratitudes tonight are:
1. I am grateful that I can rescue at least a couple of animals rendered homeless as a result of the actions of my fellow humans.
2. I am grateful that I spend the larger part of my time in the company of non-humans.
3. I am grateful that the humans with whom I normally associate are loving, compassionate people, unlike anything I’ve described herein.
4. I am grateful for the people who work the rescues and shelters and low-cost spay and neuter clinics who are trying valiantly to clean up the mess our fellow humans are making. I know it’s a never-ending battle, yet they still persevere.
5. I am grateful for abundance; of love, of compassion, of peace, of harmony, of joy, of kitty love and of prosperity. May it be enough to save us all.
Love and light.
