I was throwing knives in the front yard at the rickety target I have set up there this evening. It's fun to hear the traffic slow down when they realize what I'm doing. This evening, however, had other distractions.
After a loud ting from a misthrown blade, a small rabbit was rousted from the hedge behind the target, but not wildly. He (I felt male energy, but I could be wrong) eyed me up and moseyed over to the right. It struck me as odd, as I've read about Gil Hibben hunting rabbits with his bowies, the only practical use for knife throwing besides recreation. And come to think of it, it isn't practical at all.
I retrieved my knives and he stayed where he was, eating grass with an eye on me. All the while, he was fairly docile, even while trotting back behind the target to the other side of the house. Perhaps this is because the rabbits have blessed us since I saved the rabbit babies from a flaming lawnmower.
I'm a happy fisherman. I don't hunt, but I get hungry looking at ducks flying overhead. You know when Elmer sees Daffy turn into a headless roast? It's like that. But I have more fun living with animals than dragging their carcasses home.
Yes, intelligence as defined by and for humans is an inappropriate measure of an animal's place in an artificial hierarchy. I just have to wonder about the survival instincts of the rabbit. Perhaps he knows me better than I'm willing to admit.
Posted by Mike at September 17, 2003 12:17 AM | TrackBackWe gotta do something about the duck and get hungry thing? After all its fall and there over head all the time. Flying South or what ever they do this time of year. Does it count if there on the ground?o stay away from the park do not spend a day long feeding you. Oh yeah vitamin P again today split pea soup. Love Ya Vicki aka Maewynn the Badger.
Posted by: vicki mann aka Maewynn on September 17, 2003 11:11 AMVery true!! The placement of animals in 'man's universe' For myself, and many others, us, the fourleggeds, the root beings, the stone people.. we are all equal.. One way to look at it is that if you go four thousand light years that way.. none of it really means all that much does it? The pebble beside my shoe is as signifigant to the universee as I am.. This is not deification of the pebble.. its the assertment that I am simply as insignifigant in the grand scheme.. so for me to assume I am superior..(as most modern man does) is a step of great hubris and fallacy.
One of my Cats, Shado, has been with me now for about sixteen years. Shado understands english, I can tell him what room in the house to go to, and he knows. He can tell when I am makin fun of him and he gets very indignant.. its not a tone of voice thing.. Its clearly understanding. Yes, and animals brain may work completely different than ours does.. but that does not mean that they are incapable of coherent thought beyong fight or flight.. They are in fact very cerebral, if one considers that they are not distracted by ego and the desire to be a modern consumer. Heck, they have achieved the enlightenment Buddah teaches.. being after all.. one with the Now of thought. Or is that Zen?