All creatures great and small

 

 

"How can a creature so large at over 40 tons, be so docile and so loving?"

As my wife and I have aged, our appreciation for most creatures who walk, swim or fly over this Earth keeps increasing. Don't get me wrong - we have always been animal lovers. As we have aged, we continue to recognize the importance and stewardship of practicing our God given dominion over all creatures.

For the past few years, we have had all sorts of wildlife invade our backyard. Since we have lived here over 30 years, we would have expected the reverse to take place. In other words, more civilization equals less animals. However, for some reason it is not so. We have deer, coyote, wild turkeys, red fox and grey fox. We can sit in our porch and look out at what we call our outdoor zoo. In the winter, I feed them all if the harshness of winter threatens them - if a normal winter, I let nature take it's course. 

Our male turkey (my wife named "Tim") has been with us now for over a year. He started coming around when he was just a "Jake" with an older turkey, which we assumed was his dad. When the older turkey stopped coming around, we thought he might have been "poached" or hunted by fox or coyotes. We cared for him, and he has been with us ever since.

We have estimated the weight of Tim to be about 18 pounds. Big for a bird, but not so much for a turkey. As much as we care for Tim, we also care for numerous hummingbirds. Their weight is much, much less than 18 pounds. So if a deer who weighs over 100 pounds, a turkey weighs 18 pounds, or a hummingbird usually weighs less than an ounce. Regardless of size or weight, we care for them all. They delight us with their presence in every season, particularly in the winter.

However, as docile as some of our backyard friends are, this past couple of weeks we saw gentle giants who were much larger than what we have in our backyard. We saw humpback whales, who easily go over 40 tons. We did not see, but some people have, blue whales who weigh almost 100 tons. Like humpbacks, these kind and gentle creatures eat krill and some herring. They are of no threat to mankind.

So the next time you are our enjoying the flora or fauna from where ever you live, remember this - the Good Lord has given us dominion over all that we see. It is for us to enjoy. My advice on animals is simple this - 1) care for the animals you have and 2) if you have not yet seen a whale up close, put it on you "bucket list". We can learn much more about whales than they learn about us.