The Hunter & the Dead
I was forced out of bed by a loud disturbance outside. Vee, the doggie pet of my landlords (and mine by proxy) had cornered a rodent by the rubbish bin. A run for it ended in one quick chomp that may not have equalled bloodletting but surely crushed something for death twitching began. I never reprimanded Vee, actually never even spoke to her the whole period, instead trying to play the role of observer. It’s interesting that Vee’s tail wagging ended and i caught a picture of her as she looked at me guiltily. She then stood motionless for almost a minute, trying to decide what i was going to do and how she should respond. Eventually, she gave into temptation, took her prize in her mouth and walked uncharacteristically slow away from me into the garden. Even from there, she kept a wary eye on me. But theft had no place for death was enough for my morning. And i was filled with metaphors of Man as animal.
It's interesting to have moments when we observe and think about life and death, of course when we see it in animals it sometimes puts a whole new spin on things. I used to try and stop my cats from tossing mice and birds around my room because to me watching anything die means I had the oppertunity to stop it but I didn't. But after a while I had to remember that animals have a different order to life and death no matter how much emotion we attach to it.
The bigger point is that we aren't different at the core. We're animals too. And more vicious than any other to achieve the top of the food chain. Humans are generally rotten. The difference between one person and the next is the amount of control they possess in denying their nature.