Bugs, Animals, Compassion

I've been seeing small praying mantises around the garden lately when I've been pulling weeds. Pretty awesome.

Besides the fact that mantises are (1) great insect control and (2) amazing in appearance, they are believed to be good omens, harbingers of luck. On that first note, I should clarify, while they will prey on unwanted insects like mosquitoes, they will also feed on beneficial garden insects too...

While I'm on the subject of "bugs," I almost stepped on this buddy today: a Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia).
I feel bad for disrupting him so much--In transit back to my office I realize I caused many of the powdery scales to fall off his wing tips (Moths are from the taxonomic order Lepidoptera--which also includes butterflies; lepido- means scales and -ptera means wings). As far as I understand, this could hinder his ability to fly. Ever again. Crap.

I guess this points me in the direction of a post I had been contemplating for a while now which is about how my dog Alden is inspiring a compassion in me towards all non-human animals that is more profound than ever before. I mean, this compassion is strongly directed toward mammals, but certainly includes those other members of the Animal Kingdom. A few weeks ago I was hiking up a steep slope in the woods, up from a stream (it's my job!), and noticed that a few feet above me a TINY fawn was curled up in a ball as if to hide from approaching danger. All you could see was a fuzzy brown ball with white spots and two pointy ears poking up from the head that was tucked into its body that was hardly hiding in the few forbs of the forest floor. I could see its ears were twitching and alert and the fawn must have been terrified and unsure about what to do. What amazed me was that this baby deer was no bigger than my 23-pound puppy. I just wanted to pick it up and let it rest in my lap like Alden does, and console it: let it know we weren't going to harm it; that it was safe.

Alden can be a huge jerk. A lot. Like, he acts out--and it's probably just play. But sometimes I get mad. But to think about him getting hurt and in the times when he is sick, I feel such pain inside--it breaks my heart. The bond I've formed with Alden is as strong as the closest ones that I've formed with any other person and it's pretty amazing. And the fact that he is a (non-human) animal has inspired me to translate that compassion, like I said, to other animals. So I get sappy over plump little songbirds that bop around on our deck; or a young calf that follows its mother through the field; or the... whatever. And I get really bummed out when I see a beautiful creature that is hurt or killed, like the Cedar Waxwing that died in front of our bank, probably because it crashed into the window thinking it was sparring with another male that was really just its own reflection.

So, what was going to be a couple sentences about praying mantises turned out to be this longer rant about compassion. Back to work!