Baby Birds

Being a man I was trained to have a more harsh view of reality here on earth, especially because I  grew up in the 1950s when we all expected to die in a nuclear holocaust. When I grew up it was not If it was When we would all die by nukes. This changes a person a lot. But, by the 1980s this slowly started to change, and finally changed completely by the 1990s.

Tonight I heard my daughter who was exercising on our outdoor trampoline be upset about her dog eating a baby bird that was trying to fly. The mother bird was very upset and crying because my daughter's dog ate her baby. My wife went out and was very upset and pulled the dead baby bird carcass out of our dogs mouth and brought it into the kitchen on a paper towel. I saw the little thing there and realized it was dead. My wife wanted to put the carcass in the trash can but I knew that wouldn't be the right thing to do. I said, "I want to  put it over the fence into the green belt (where no one lives so neither of our dogs would eat it." My wife at first though very upset wanted to put the bird in the trash and I said, "That wouldn't be right." So, I did what I felt was best for the baby bird, it's mother and nature in general.

My wife was pretty upset that her dog and her daughter's dog had done this. I was raised to be more pragmatic about stuff like this. Dogs eat birds if they can and this same dog regularly eats gophers and wood rats in the forest if she finds them. So, my view is "This is what animals and dogs do." Trying to make them something else isn't healthy.

In fact, if we are realistic about this many pets, especially dogs and cats, tend to eat their owners if they die and can't feed the pets and the pets are locked in with them, usually starting with the hand that normally  feeds them first.

So, I guess it is: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you." (Unless it stops feeding you)
You might think saying this is cruel. Yes. It is cruel but so is life. Life isn't a fairy tale as much as many would like it to be. Even I might prefer a fairy tale. But being pragmatic I'm still alive. While I watched friends who believed in fairy tales all die one by one from their non-pragmatic and non-efficient beliefs usually. But, I'm 65 and still here.