Please note; This post must not be read by sensitive souls.
I really abhor days like this as it always results in placing us in a sad mood. We all know that life is short, but there is certainly no need for the hand of man to make it shorter, as we travelled down the road the sight made me stop the car in its tracks. If you are a nature lover, you will know what I am talking about, and yes, it is a horrible feeling to see the waste of a cute little mammal in a roadkill.
They call it roadkill, and the worst thing is that we can do nothing about it, except maybe to warn others to be careful. The people speed down this road, and at the same time, there are couples walking their dogs, with their little children, and elderly people also walk down the road on their daily exercise road walk. We pray that a speeding vehicle will not strike anyone of them.
Remember my previous squirrel post this past week, and it is this little one that is now no more.
This below is the big overhanging tree that drops the fruit and nuts into the road, where the squirrels and the birds feast.
I have to say that the birds scamper out of the way of an oncoming vehicle very fast, but at times the squirrels run in the wrong direction and then they end up under the wheels of a car. Whereas, if there is no speeding then the squirrels might stand a better chance. As a matter of fact, we see many people driving down the road, and at the same time they are busy on their mobile phones, so there is not time to still concentrate on the road.
These are the fruits that end up in the road (2 shots).
So now, me and the wife take turns to sweep the road under the tree to get the fruits into the gutter next to the road (2 shots).
There you can see the cars cannot drive in this area, as they can only drive in the open road.
And finally, as you see in the tag picture, this was our closure, as we gave the little one a proper burial. Its grave is now in our front garden.
One would think that we are used to it by now, but not so, as every time that an incident like this occurs then it simply awakens the memories about all of the other needless wildlife burials that we have done. Now we can't blame anyone, as it is dangerous for animals to sit in the roads, especially in a road that is covered by the shade of a big overhanging tree, and as I came driving down the road, I also almost missed the sight of the dead squirrel in the road.
Can you believe that we are still hurting about the untimely death of our little dog Troy that spent its life of 17 years with us. In the meantime, we have also buried many other birds and mammals, including a young Jackal Buzzard bird of prey that was killed by a car, and even a small "Duiker" buck that we found lying dead near the cottage that we lived in on the Apple Farm when we moved to the Cape. My wife even made me bury dead frogs. She even dug the hole for the burial of this little squirrel, and all I did was to do the blessing and the cross.
Such is life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos and words by Zac Smith. No AI and Photoshop. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
Until next time. Shalom!