She is Us

Her body lay in the dying weeds, in an open field by a popular walking trail, just outside of town. I wondered what could have possibly happened. She seemed so healthy, with a beautiful coat of fur, and the unstained teeth of youth. Had she been sick? If so, certainly she would have crept away to some dark and safe place to pass in peace. The angle of her body suggested she didn’t simply lay down and die, that perhaps she was run down by an off-leash dog, or coyotes.

A nuisance animal she’s called, for wanting to survive precariously aside humans…humans that want the rural lifestyle, yet destroy the same animals, whether intentionally or not, that give rural places such magic…animals that create a deeper connection with Nature.

Over the months that followed, as she lay decomposing, dogs rolled joyfully on her dead body, adorning themselves with her scent. And humans dismembered her, stealing her skull, her tail. Tufts of her fur were scattered across the field. She will live on, I suppose, in the meal of those who would consume her flesh, the fragrant scent of decay imbedded on canine fur, and, hopefully, as some special talisman to those who would remove her parts. She is on the breeze now, in the air we breathe, and in the dirt and weeds. Her energy has changed, moved, become part of something bigger, something vast, and different…or, maybe, not all together different. She is part of us, and we are part of her.