Warning: Raw Nature Content – there is blood on this page.


Rhianna is one of our pet cats. She is the sort of cat who gets lots of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ when people come and visit, because she’ll come right up to greet you and will start cuddling and loving you as soon as you’re acquainted.


The thing about sweet pets like this is that it can be tough to remember they’re predators. In fact, a lot of the animals we humans have taken as pets are predators – from dogs and cats to ferrets and some fish. It’s odd that we’ve taken, as our most beloved animal companions, creatures that make a regular practice of feeding on meat.


    Our lovely Rhianna. Don’t let her darling appearance
         fool you. She’d eat you if she could.                                                                   Rhianna at the kill.

When our dog Suka brought home a road-killed rabbit the other day, this meat-eating tendency was vividly illustrated. When Suka wasn’t looking, Rhianna went over to have a taste for herself.


Often, Rebecca and I find ourselves wondering if our cats would eat us if they were a little larger. You may love your own cat and think they’d never do such a thing, but perhaps the question isn’t so fantastical. As Sy Montgomery pointed out during her time with the man-eating tigers of Sundarbuns, we’re all made of meat. In fact, right under our smooth skin is meat as moist, tender, and sweet as the meat Rhianna tore from the rabbit’s ribs.



It’s a bit sobering to remember that. Cloaked amid our shiny technology, it’s easy to forget our primal roots. In fact, sometimes we can see an image like that of Rhianna eating a rabbit and find it repulsive. It might not be that we find the whole 'eating-meat' thing to be ‘wrong’, since we’re not often repulsed by the sight of wild predators at a kill. . .
 

                                        We’re all made of meat.
                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                    A red-tailed hawk dines on skunk.

. . . but in our ‘civilized’ world, we’re almost always separated from the predator/prey cycle. Many of us who eat meat have never killed an animal, and it’s easy to start thinking that meat comes from the grocery instead of a living, breathing creature.

The rabbits near Sweetwater need to stay wary. Hawks circle above, our two dogs are always on the lookout, and our two cats crouch in the tall grasses. Usually, the rabbits’ speed proves superior, and the rabbit population only seems to grow. But predators are lurking, and nature plays out the ancient balance of predator and prey. Personally, we find it comforting to know that we’re a part of that balance – we’ll eat a lot of creatures and plants in our lifetimes, but in the end our bodies will become food for other creatures, and nourish the roots of plants and new life.  It’s nice to be reminded of our connection with the Wild.

 

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