dead animal

 Death is never pretty....it is ugly, yet beautiful at the same time....really...

Yesterday, I was out walking Boomer by a creek, as I do when I walk him, I pick up trash that is left by others or blown around by the wind.  I feel that we should share our environment with the critters that live there too...

Since it is spring, not all of the bushes and growth around the creek area has filled in, so you can see trash you would not normally see.  I saw some trash, so I walked around a bush and found this....

At first, it freaked me the fuck out and I turned to run away...but instead, I took a picture and started really looking at this dead dog or coyote....I noticed his teeth were all there, white and very healthy looking, so I surmised this was a younger animal when it died.  Because other animals have been munching on it, I could not tell the way it died...but the position of the mouth reminded me of an animal in acute pain gritting its teeth....

I started crying, and cried all the way back to the Jeep, and sat in my jeep...I cried for the suffering of that dog....I cried for the suffering of my childhood animals at the hands of my monster step dad...I cried for my beloved dog, Lou Lou....I cried for all the abused, neglected, and dead animals....

I realize dying is a part of living, but seeing this beautiful creature in the midst of decomposition,  showed me the ugliness of death....the horrific death mask of a face...

Kevin was gonna go out and bury it after work...but we decided to leave him be, soon the weeds and plant growth will conceal it...this fall, I am gonna go back and see if it is still there...I may take the skull, and preserve it as I did the raccoon skull that was fully intact.   We will see if all the skin and excess comes off during the summer.

I know that sounds Macabre to want to do that, but, that poor animal had a violent death, and deserves the respect of a peaceful resting place.  I love skulls and bones of all sorts, they tell a story of a once vibrant life, snuffed out...they tell the story of how fragile and short life is, and at any given moment it can be gone.

Here is something, maybe a little sociopathic in thought, but if I had come across a human in that condition, I would not have cried, not at all, been grossed out, then called 911...but no crying.

Animals are different....if a dog dies or gets killed in a movie, I cry and never watch that movie again...if I see a dead animal in the road, my heart screams out and hurts so badly...but seeing scenes of war and death of people, even children, do not bring me to tears...its the death of all the animals killed in a people war...that makes me cry buckets.....fuck

I am much more connected to animals than people.  Always have been, always will be.  

So, that was my yesterday....tragic, yet beautifully depicted in nature...

S, 7