The recent story of wild animals released from their confinement by their keeper who then committed suicide caught the media's attention. How this guy accumulated some of these species that are considered quite rare interests me. Of course, I've heard many complain through the media that people should never be permitted to own them. Right away I thought how there must be the opposite view that people should have the right to do whatever they want. I've told the story many times of my dad remembering when stop signs on highways were first installed and that, then, there was a pushback. Order in the natural world has changed to accommodate us, the dominant species, as we multiply. I think of the changes forthcoming in the western part of North Dakota from the oil development. The status quo is going to be upset. So to stop this rambling I dusted off another old poem of mine that tells of an experience where wildlife met civilization.
- The Dog and the Badger -
Entering this humble memory,
I am the boy of seven again
witnessing a duel fought to its vile
end. Short-shadows of midday distort
the shapes of a badger and a dog
locked in struggle beside the dirt road.
A man and his German Shepherd caught
the wild one, off guard, digging a den
in the dry ridge. We came on the scene
in the midst of their desperation
and heard the dog's master goading him
to charge into the fray, "Sic 'im, git
'im, boy!" Hot coals of ancient instinct
bid him to attack and kill this beast,
but a searing fire in the badger
roared at this affront. He responded
with defiance and counterattacked.
Their fight deadlocked. At times, when the dog
backed off, energy spent, lolling tongue
dripping blood, the badger turned to dig
and deepen his hope of survival.
And still, the man kept urging his dog
to the attack, again and again.
It obeyed, but each time his strength slipped,
and the badger kept on with digging.
The man refused to let the badger
escape. With a pliers he cut wire
from a rusting fence and bent a hook
on one end, then jammed it down to twist
and pull at the badger's fur and flesh.
He soon emerged, infuriated,
writhing, trying to rid his body
of this bond. The dog then re-entered
the fight and bothered the doomed badger
enough to let the man lift a fence
post and bring it down, hard,
on his
head!
