Boy Scouts-- Part 2

Ummm yes. I forgot that I was going to say thanks for all the replies to my dog food post. Thanks for the helpful links and comments.

I've got a few books I'm reading through, and am keeping Haru on half kibble half cooked for now. So far so good, and Haru is loving it. Firmer/smaller poo, and less smelly too.

Also the pics above are of Haru's coat so you can see what I was talking about a couple posts back. The red definitely takes longer to come in. She's has a lot more black now, especially when compared to when she was a pup.


So, back to the leeches and ticks...

I don't know if it's just me, but I can feel it the moment a leech bites. It hurts. Maybe I'm immune to their painkiller or whatever, but as soon as I feel that telltale sting I'm dropping my trousers and yanking them off.

Well after the happy leech/tick episode, I headed toward the wildlife protection zone to see if I could get some footage. There's this one mountain road that has multiple deer trails crossing it, and I can usually count on seeing deer there any given day if I wait long enough.

I drive up and down the stretch of road for awhile, but nothing. It's just before dusk, and the real movement of deer and boar should be starting. But again, nothing. I decided to stake out my favorite meadow for a while, so pulled out a book and waited for around an hour. Nothing.

It's starting to get dark so impatient me drives up to the top of the mountain and back down again. Just as I'm thinking it's not my lucky night out pop a few does at the bottom of the mountain road. It's already too dark to get decent footage, and they're spooked by the car. I do a u-turn to see if I can catch them crossing the road, but by the time I get back to the spot they're bolting across. Too fast for footage.

I got a little bit of blurry junk which I'll post later. Thing is I decided to head up to the top of the mountain and head home by going down the other side. As I get halfway up, to a spot I was at less than 5 minutes before, there's a large fawn down in the middle of the road. I found it strange because it looks like roadkill, but any cars would have had to have passed me. On closer inspection she has vines and leaves all over her, and she's still alive. The spot she was at in the road has 10 meter (around 30feet) high rock faces on either side with a lot of shrubbery up there.

She had probably broken her back and was unable to get up, but still very much alive, able to make a little bit of noise and lift her head a little. I won't get too graphic, but she was bleeding as well, looked like she'd taken a nasty hit to the head.

The only thing I could deduce from the situation is that she had slipped off one of the sides of the road and landed hard on the road. What do you know, deer have their own accidents.

Now I was in a bit of a pickle. She's in the middle of the road, so I have to move her to get by, and she's obviously dying very painfully. However, I'm in a wildlife protection zone, so it's illegal for me to put her out of her misery. In Japan it's also illegal to pick up roadkill, it ends up being classified as some form of theft apparently, or a violation of the hunting laws. It's already past 8pm and the forestry office down the road is not picking up.

Now in hindsight the other option would have been to call the cops and wait for them to drag themselves up the mountain. Well I got the gloves on, and moved her off the road. I also did what I thought was morally correct, but which I won't post.

I headed home, feeling a sad numbness. I'm a pretty lousy hunter. I love being in the wild, tracking, planning, waiting, and even hauling/dressing/preparing game, but I hate the kill. A lot of hunters prefer to use the term 'harvesting' and shy away from using the 'K' word. But it is what it is. I am taking a life to continue mine. I have a lot of thoughts on the subject of hunting, but I'll save it for another time.

I drove home and came across what looked like more roadkill. A palm civet (of SARS fame) on the side of the road. I got out with the shovel and did my bit, but on closer inspection it had puncture wounds to the around the head/neck area. Looked like a canine kill. More irony. Head out to take pictures of 'wildlife' and all I come across is wilddeath. You think it's all roadkill but then find out it's not.

Well slightly gruesome post perhaps, but it is what it is. The natural cycle of things, birth/death, all happening everyday, everywhere.