The Death In Rural Living

Up until I moved to Vancouver Island I'd only seen roadkill. Not a ton of it. A chipmunk here. A cat there. On the rare occasion a deer when I headed into the mountains to see my parents. These days, I see something dread pretty much every day. The more rural my living becomes, the higher the death count. As an animal lover and vegan, all this decay and loss of life is unsettling. Yes, I understand it's all the circle of life and death is ultimately the end result for all of us, but I don't like seeing it.

Today, Dixon tried to roll in a dead octopus but didn't manage to get into it. I pulled him away just in time and continued to drag him across the rocks and halfway down the beach before he realized he didn't stink like rottenness. He looked so happy. Just this big pitbull grin on his gorgeous face, thrilled to be alive and able to roll in dead things. Does anyone actually know why dogs feel the need to do this?

The dead octopus isn't the first time Dixon and I have ran into a dead animal. There was the dead fish he actually managed to roll in and let me reassure you, the bath that came afterwards was met with far less enthusiasm. And once when we were hiking up to Elk Falls there was a deer at the side of the road, also dead, and he tried to roll in that, but he missed.

Still, the dead things keep piling up.

In the last year I've seen a dead beaver, a decapitated sea lion, raccoons and possums, one smooshed badger, a handful of deer, crows, an octopus, fish, crabs, one cat, a rabbit, squirrels, crickets galore, a bunch of mice and a mole. At least I think it was a mole. Sometimes it's hard to identify the creatures I come across. Insert a disturbed sad face here.

I suppose in some ways I'm not cut out for living so close to nature. While I love exploring and touching trees and wading through water, I'm not really a fan of all this death and dying business.
On the other hand, this sort of scenery means I will never move away.