It’s pretty well known that cats feel satisfaction when killing animals and then presenting them to their owners. They see it as an eerie gift, a sacrifice to show the people they love most that they’re doing good.
My cat loves doing this. At least once a month she brings something to our porch in an effort to please us (crazily enough she brought a mouse as I was organizing my thoughts for this). However, I can’t think of a single time she has actually brought a poor critter to us already dead.
The first time this happened she brought a baby bunny. When I first saw it, I was shocked because I had never seen such an animal so close with my own eyes. My brother and I ran out to the porch to pick up the small creature before my cat could do any additional damage. I felt horrible. The bunny was frozen, obviously in shock. My brother looked at me and asked, “What do we do?”
I was in the same emotional state that he was in. I just sighed, “I don’t know.”
My dad joined us with a simple solution of throwing the animal back into the woods and letting nature run its course. We couldn’t let ourselves do this. We both knew that if we put the bunny into nature it would die throughout the course of the night. My brother insisted on taking the bunny in and making an attempt to nurse it back to life.
I was put into an ethical dilemma.
In such a situation should we as humans do the best we can with the resources we have, or are we responsible to return what belongs to nature to its home, knowing it most likely will not survive?
I made a promise to myself that I would do the best I could at helping the bunny, and even if it didn’t work out I could sleep well knowing that I tried.
My brother and I went to my room with the wild rabbit. He held it while I assembled a habitat as fast as I could using one of my old hamster cages.
We did a bit of research regarding what food the bunny would/should eat, and ended up cutting up some vegetables that the internet said would be fine. The stubborn thing would not eat. It hardly moved. After trying for a couple hours, we finally got it to nibble on a piece of celery, and even if it wasn’t much, we felt good enough.
It was already pretty late in the night, so we decided to put the cage in my brother’s room and leave it alone. He would keep a lookout throughout the night, and in the morning we would make an attempt to set the rabbit free.
. . .
After morning came my brother barged in my room. He was absolutely ecstatic. The bunny was doing amazing. It was hopping around and eating just as one would expect from an animal of its type. My brother and I felt as though it was ready to be released.
The second we put the bunny down it sprinted off into the woods. I felt amazing. I felt like I did a good job. I felt like I saved the bunny.
Come nightfall my cat present us another prize: the exact same bunny from before.
My heart dropped to my chest. The bunny was in the same state as it was before we took it in. Once again my brother and I ran out to save it from my cat. This time we decided to take the bunny somewhere my cat wouldn’t find it. With the permission of my neighbor we placed the bunny in his yard.
I felt good with this decision after seeing how hyper the bunny got the night before after some time to calm down. I didn’t feel as good when my neighbor called my dad ten minutes later to tell us he put the bunny in his trash can because it didn’t move.
At the time I felt heartbroken and I wished I never entered the situation to begin with, but now that some time has passed I’ve been able to reflect on what happened.
I was put into a difficult position and I had to make a decision. If I was asked before I would say that there wasn’t a right answer because the world is a cruel place, but now I feel as though there wasn’t a right answer because outside forces intruded and changed the affects.
While I still feel as though there is no right answer I realize that I wasn’t in a position where I could nurse the bunny. I didn’t have the materials nor the knowledge required to properly help. However, even if I did I certainly would not plan on keeping the bunny long term, so I would fear the consequences of desensitizing the animal of the requirements of life when living in the wild.
Every time my cat brings something to the porch I’m faced with the same dilemma from when I first saw the bunny.
Should we as humans do the best we can with the resources we have, or are we responsible to return what belongs to nature to its home, knowing it most likely will not survive?
I don’t know.
While I’ve chosen the former every time since, I accept that it is most likely due to the fact that I know I’m not prepared for the task that I have an opportunity to take on. I realize that through simply making such a decision we as humans can affect the course of nature either way.
To this day I strongly believe the bunny would have been fine and that my neighbor judged too quickly (I don’t understand why he put the animal in the trash can though), so thanks a lot Dale, but I can understand that he, too, made a decision, a decision that affected the course of nature.
PICS/VIDS
Check out my vlog of the experience on this page (SO sorry I don’t have an easier way to link it! Turns out you have to have premium to add videos to a post..)
The Cons of Writing 