Unpopular subject

I was recently reminded that the purpose of this blog, was to describe to the majority of you a different lifestyle- so, here goes, because I doubt many of you have experienced this.

How can I communicate to you how vastly disconcerting it is be be safe, and warm inside this house, working on a project of some sort, and to hear the sharp, LOUD, blast of a rifle?  Instantly, I know that one of my wildlife friends is in trouble.  I have to admit that in this, I'm in the minority.  People out here don't feel about animals the way I do.  Animals, out here, are a means to an end. They are meat, or protection or a nuisance.  To cry over a wild deer strikes many as ridiculous.  I do it all the same.

 

I truly despise hunting season.  And for many reasons.

I'll be feeding the mares, and BANG! that rifle shot again- The horses take off running, snorting, tails high.  Or... I'll be riding and BOOM!  stupid rifle shot again.  I worry, even riding on my own property, that some yahoo will be trespassing, and mistake my horse for an elk.  It's not uncommon, after all, when else do we condone sending young and old, into the woods with cases of beer and guns?  Things happen. Bruce says, good, law abiding, decent folk lose their BRAINS when they see an elk.  The thought of losing one of my mares to a stray bullet terrifies me. 

and yet- it is a fact of life out here. 

I send my husband away to other places to get our meat for Winter, and it does cross my mind, that maybe, just maybe, there's another crazy tree-hugging, animal lover who is worried about her wildlife friends. To them, just in case, I always apologize- and I want them to know that my husband passes up MANY, many shots until he knows without a doubt that he can kill the animal outright with one shot. He cannot abide being the cause of an animal suffering. AND afterwards, he always sends a prayer of thanks to the deer, elk, etc. who sacrificed it's life so we can eat. 

As I've said before, I "get it".  The whole circle of life thing... the whole predator/prey relationship... balancing numbers, etc.  I get it.  I don't like it, but I get it. I just feel how I feel.  I know that each and every one of those animals have a distinct personality, and a burning desire to live. And when you kill one of them, it matters to them.

And out of respect, it matters to me, too.