Yesterday, I had a farm cat, feral that had 6 kittens. This is her second batch, but the first 3 died because of weather and I couldn’t catch her in order to save the kittens or have her fixed. So, yesterday, she had 6 more kittens…I saw the kittens, but she was in a place that I couldn’t get to.
So, last night, she apparently was moving the new born kittens (because I had found them) and a skunk came along. Now, we normally don’t have skunks because we raise German Shorthaired Pointers and they don’t like to run into the dogs, but for some reason, this skunk felt comfortable to come onto the property.
Skunks will eat kittens, and so this one did. The Mama cat fought fiercely to protect this batch…unfortunately…she lost the battle. She now lays out in the next field…dying from her wounds. Another feral cat that I just had fixed, sits next to her…to comfort her.
I’ve seen things like this before…people keep saying that animals don’t have feelings, but they are wrong.
I once saw a Cow tearing though the herd, bawling uncontroled running back and forth in the field. She bawled continuously for hours…she would run to one end of the field, then back to an area and stand there, then she would run to another end of the field and back…all day long. Finally, the farmer came home so I went down to his house and told him that he had a cow that was distressed. We took a walk into the field. The cow came running up to us and then back to the area, then back to us, then back to the area until we could get there. There lay her newborn calf…dead. She had been trying to tell someone that there was something wrong the whole time. The farmer said it happens all the time…that the cows and bulls have a language all their own and that they communicate.
If there is communication, then there is logic…if there is logic…there has to be emotion.
I have a manx cat, she is incredibly smart. She had a kitten that would follow her around. One day, she was meowing really loud…she kept coming to my office door and scratching, I would let her in and she would meow really loud and scratch on the door to get out. After letting her in and out a couple of times I thought, I wonder if she is trying to tell me something?
So I got up and went to the door…she ran in the direction of a bucket I had filled with water for the dogs…in the bucket was the kitten..that had drown. I took the kitten out of the water and the Cat kept yeowling, so I put the kitten down so she could see it…she licked the face and purred to it, she tried to take the neck so she could take it back to her bed. I took the kitten away from her and got a shovel to bury it. I dug the hole and showed her the kitten again since she was following me….She did the same thing, licked it’s face and purred the mama purr to it…I took the kitten and buried it and thought that would be the end of it. That Cat laid on that grave for a week, through wind, rain, storm..she laid there and didn’t leave until another cat had kittens.
I’m not a vegetarian…since I was raised around the farm, I know that the circle of life contains not only birth, but death as well.
Humans are predators, that a simple truth…you may be a vegetarian, but your still a predator…unless you live a “Christ-like” life and do not hurt anything, including another human…you are a predator.
Ever say anything hurtful to someone in a fight in order to win?…your a predator. Ever plan a business move that puts you in a better position?…your a predator. Ever go shopping and grab what you want before someone else gets there?…your a predator. Ever go to an event and try to get the upper hand for a better position? …your a predator. Humans are cannibalistic in that we live in a heap and all try from the beginning of birth until our death to not only survive, but to survive at the top of the heap…to be the Alpha, to be the top of the pecking order…we are predators. We have a tendancy to “eat up” anything good another person has to offer…their type of house, their position, their talents, their type of clothing… if it will take us to the top of the heap.
We have logic and thought, we have the ability to control our surroundings and we have the ability to feel compassion and act on it.
So, the mama cat lays dying from her wounds she recieved for the protection of her kittens…and she lost. The other cat lays next to her, to comfort her as she draws her last breath.
As humans…as predators…we can learn a lot from the animals. It doesn’t always happen this way…sometimes the rest of the herd puts distance between themselves and the lion that just took down one of their own…they don’t look back, they just run!…but there are some that are exceptional, that have evolved to almost a human ability…and even though they do not have our intelligence or our abilities, they still have more compassion for each other in survival…something that a lot of human predators lack.
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