Here's the thing about card-carrying animal lovers, the ones St. Francis himself might certify. They have to apply that love equally to all creatures, even the ones that frighten or repel them.
I've had to remind myself of that several times lately, and not just when using my BugZooka to humanely remove spiders from the house.
Usually the animals around our property are endearing, like the quail that likes to stroll across the road whenever we're in a hurry, the fox kit my husband spotted when, naturally, I was at work, or the eagle that sometimes sits in a tree branch near our dock, glare trained on the dogs as they chase water toys, as if sizing them up for dinner.
Then there are the loons and coyotes whose calls we sometimes hear at night, the deer we often see near the wild raspberries and the fawn so young it stayed curled up when the dogs stumbled over it during a walk in the woods. My husband took photos from a distance, then brought me back that evening to give me a once-in-a-lifetime gift.
We returned only once more, to make sure the fawn wasn't orphaned.
It was about then that we discovered the snake. It was sunning itself on our dock when my husband went down to drain the paddleboat after a heavy rain. As he approached, the snake slipped into the water, settling in the reeds close to shore off one side of the dock. It was still there a few days later, so the dogs and I played on the other side of the dock, where the splashing would be less likely to annoy it.
We needn't have bothered. Attracted by the noise or the ripples, the snake slowly swam by, head out of the water, scaly eye fixed on us.
I didn't go back for a week.
When I did, I discovered that the kingfisher that likes to sit on the top of the dock bench has been leaving its calling card all over the seat. It called a lot.
Then, last night, as I was petting the collie, I felt a scab above her eyebrow. It seemed loose so I started to pull it from her fur, where it seemed to stick like gum. I reached for a napkin and pulled again, and this time it came out. Only instead of a scab it was a tick, making my skin itch for the rest of the night.
Now I'm reminding myself of this bit of wisdom from St. Francis: "If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."
Reach staff writer Marta Hepler Drahos at mdrahos@record-eagle.com.
