Invasion

So last week we lost our rooster.  He was a good rooster.  Skiddish, but plenty nice and I never had to worry about him being aggressive around Clayton.  The weather was so beautiful, that I let the chickens out of the fenced in back yard a few times to scavenge elsewhere.  Well apparently, I let them out once too often, because he was snatched by a coyote.  All that we found of him were piles of feathers.

But he died doing what he was put on this green earth to do which is to protect his ladies and his babies.  And while I felt bad for letting them out and thereby allowing this to happen because we have a perfectly good back yard and a perfectly good chicken run, I felt better knowing it was likely very swift and his final days were absolutely AMAZING weather.

It's funny, last year after losing some of her livestock, my neighbor commented that sometimes she forgets she lives in the wild.  Isn't that true of all of us though?  Our world is their world and we just push animals from their homes most of us thinking nothing of it.  Its hard to hate the coyote for doing what he does which is hunt for food.  We live on untamed property and one of the things I love about that is that it provides a natural habitat for various species whose homes have been taken from them as we push the boundaries of our cities and neighborhoods more and more.  We've relocated a few animals who have been pests and we have shot the ones threatening our chickens in their coop, but otherwise, we try to leave them alone.  They don't bother me (my chickens), I won't bother them.

This past fall, we got George's 14-year old lab set up on the back porch since she could no longer control her bowels and had such trouble walking.  We would bring her in when we went to bed, but earlier in the evenings when it was time for the chickens to roost, the rooster would come keep her company her first few evenings.  It was the weirdest thing...but sweet.

I distinctly remember growing up listening to my parents talk about all the places that use to be different when they were growing up.  Particularly my dad, because his family use to own a good bit of property that he use to hunt right here locally that now you could never imagine has having ever been anything, but back to back houses.  I didn't live with him and when he would come to town he liked to ride around and check things out...I heard lots of stories on these rides.  Now as an adult, I look around and see the same things and think the same thoughts as I'm sure my dad was on those rides. I live in what was once the country.  I live on the same property on which I was born and raised and I travel the same roads I have traveled for nearly 30 years.  I cannot describe how much it has changed.  What was once farm land and cow pastures is now neighborhoods and churches.  It's sad.  Makes me feel like we are an invasive species.  We are aren't we?  At some point, we as a civilization, decided we had the right to conquer everything and we haven't stopped since.  We barely consider how our explorations and population booms have any affect on the land and the animals that call it home.  And for those people that do consider it and try and make a difference they often get labeled as crazies and liberals, etc.  Well if caring about the earth God put us on and the beautiful things that God put on this earth with us makes one a crazy, then count me in.  Regardless, we should all take the time to consider how our actions and ways of living are affecting our planet and the animal that inhabit it and in turn how these things affect us.  The things that we do on this earth have so many health consequences that we cannot even begin to imagine.  Rather than embracing and caring for our natural world we are trying to create a controlled-synthetic environment and in the process causing harm to ourselves, our children and generation after generation to come...All while sacrificing the amazing natural gifts God has provided to us.  But I digress...

Who knew the loss of one rooster could cause such a tangent? I'm going to stop now because this could keep going.

The point is we owe it to them to do better and to be better and to think about more than just ourselves.