The Wayward Path from Nature

At the top of North South Lake last February.

Clearly blogs are intended to be informative, perhaps inspiring, hopefully newsworthy.

And perhaps this entry will be none of the above. Let's say its the treatise of the dog who hasn't been on a bike ride or a hike in a long time.

Pessimistic? Perhaps. More like shocked at the sad direction the world is taking away from nature. And on that note, I'll have to venture to the morbid. (Morbidity alert!)

Have any of you noticed that this past year has been unbearably hectic, full of injuries and wayward trips, and interruptions of normal life altogether?

I certainly have. Now as a dog, I have little control over what goes on in the first place. And I have to say, this winter has been for the cats! And even they didn't like it.

Happy times when I resemble one of those Swiss sheep.

Starting with Hurricane Sandy! We were homeless for almost two weeks, only to come back to too many things to do to have fun. And our favorite trails were covered in fallen trees, so we couldn't even use them for over 2 months! All of our food rotted during the outage, then two refrigerators in a row died, and we were putting our food out on the front steps, like they did on Tobacco Alley during the dust bowl days.

Then came the endless trips to the doctor: my feet hurt, and I definitely don't feel like hiking anywhere. Add to that the excessive cold we haven't been enjoying for the past month. And now I have a lump on my breast. The source? Probably the huge amount of toxic motor excrescence I absorb through my paws.

Existential question number one: why are the ignoramuses spreading salt on the sidewalks? Don't they realize it hurts my paws, and causes destruction to the environment and enters the water system? Where I live, the lazy--f's don't even clear their walks--they just throw down salt as if they were sprinkling rice at a wedding.

 Armchair philosophy--my greatest asset.

But I have also noticed an increase in lack of empathy for animals.  Since the temps have been in the teens, this winter season my mother took me shopping for winter coats (for her and for me.)

It was truly shocking to see how many coats had fur collars. Now I needn't remind you that I am an animal, and I truly resent seeing the skins of my brethren around your neck. It really isn't cute, and it's not charming. It's more like a throwback to medieval times. I mean if humans really want to live like we did then, they should kills themselves when they reach age 40, because that was the life expectancy.

It's gotten so bad, you can't even buy some coats without fur! I guess the coat companies think their jackets won't sell without dead animal adornments.

What's worse, humans have no sense how much pain and suffering goes into each one of those collars, or they wouldn't buy them.

Then there's the fact that we've gotten so far away from the source of our food, that we eat chicken, pork and beef like it was never an animal in the first place! Certainly the pieces don't even come close to looking like who they started out as.

Here's an e.g.: Taco Bell, glorious pics of red meat coming towards your face. Succulent, but they forgot all the steps in between.

Smelling the roses, waiting for the cat to chase last summer.

First the sad, short life living in a box, followed by being forced onto the killing floor, the blow to the brain, then the cutting of the meat, then packaging, then shipping. You didn't see any of that in the commercial!

And those chicken McNuggets? So easy to forget they used to be living, clucking, sweet little birds who grew up inhumanely in cages, and then got their necks chopped off. I mean I bet you didn't even need those extra calories!

It's time some of the big brains came up with better food alternatives that taste good instead of phooey! blecch, tempeh and Quinoa! 

Add to that the huge number of animals killed by automobiles. It's epic, but again, no one seems to think it's important enough to start adding either whistles to their cars, or fences to the sides of roadways.

And I haven't even started on the whole gun thing! What the heck do we need to hunt for anymore? I mean don't all the gun-wielding big butts have enough food on the table that they don't have to kill innocent animals?

Let me give you an e.g.: I am a deer traipsing through the woods foraging desperately for my next meal, when ZING! Someone shoots me in the head! They then empty out my guts, take me home, remove my antlers, cut me up and stuff me in the freezer where I rot until springtime when they throw me out.

This is just so anachronistic it makes me cry out for a hunt on the hunters! Man, if only animals ran the world!

Finally, I recently went through Pet Pardons' long list of dogs and cats who are about to be axed. You know that all of us fear being axed at any moment, but that long list is heart breaking.

So many of the dogs on death row are so because of puppy mills that create them, and the people who buy them who can't take care of them.

It's time to stop this: stop being so cruel to animals. I know, because I see it and fear it every day.

Love,

Ana Banana