Saturday, February 02, 2008

Regenerate?


regenerate
Originally uploaded by Randuwa
These images are from advertisements for the product called "Bufalo" to be used to polish and restore leather products. Hence the water buffalo/sofa and the python/belt. It's clever photoshopping, but to me it's also rather ghoulish.

On a planet in which species diversity is dwindling at dramatic rates, we have to raise consciousness around ideas of preservation, not consumption.

Last evening I went out back to deposit some recyclables in my bin only to discover that all my bins had been upturned! Something was looking for something. And then I felt the eyes. Looking into my neighbors yard through the maze of branches of the defoliated althea hedge that lines the fencerow, I saw a deer. Not an unusual sighting anymore.

She stood still, alert, unafraid. In the graying twilight of a cloudy, rainy day, there was also an air of ill-being about her. I spoke gently and with a soothing voice to her and she responded by cocking her ears and readjusting her stance. That's when I realized that her left hind leg was held up in an awkward manner.

Squinting and trying to get a better look, it was clear that her hindquarter was seriously injured. There was no blood; it was not a fresh wound. Her protruding ribs testified to this.

I retreated into my home and grabbed a head of broccoli, a couple of pears and an apple from my fridge. I returned to find her waiting and gingerly tossed the food in her direction with the technique of a bocce ball player. As they rolled along the ground she retreated a few cautious steps. And then I went inside. This morning all but the broccoli was gone (apparently, she's a Republican!).

I have no great hope that her life remains long on this planet. I also really had no other recourse. The police won't come under such benign circumstances; neither will animal control. A rabid deer? Yes; a starving deer? No.

Perhaps someday, if I find myself in a similar circumstance, some stranger will offer me a pear....

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