Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Watch Your Back

It's that time of year (again) ... cooler days, more rain, occasional gusts of wind and - the always unsettling sound of not-so-distant gunfire. Those lovely deer we've been walking among all summer are being hunted down like, well, animals. At first it was just on weekend mornings, starting about 7:00 a.m. And if it's raining, oddly enough, more shots can be heard. Now, it can be any day, any time. The hunters go out whenever they can, apparently. Sometimes it sounds like they are in the forest just 3 doors down but Todd says they are about 2-3 miles away. That's still too close for my city-girl standards.

When we were out and about on Monday, we saw deer all over town, apparently flushed out of the forest. Last night, Todd and I were on our way back from Home Depot when we saw deer out on the highway, most unusual but understandable, considering they are being pursued. They are so sweet. Yes, they are in abundance this year, it seems, but I still can't feel right about the whole hunting thing. I never will.

However, I would prefer animal hunting to people hunting. My son was walking home from college last week when he stopped to read the front page news of our local paper (it's sold at a stand that he passes on his way home.) Apparently, some stupid high school kid here in our town was plotting a murder at the high school and had asked another student to help him. Fortunately, this second student informed the authorities who arrested the first student and he's now in the youth detention center. Chad was quite shaken up by this news. Having the local high school be just down the hill from our home didn't help matters. I'm so thankful this terrible thing was stopped short. I'm extremely thankful I homeschool my kids. Sigh.

Can anything good come from the use of a gun?

(My apologies to those of you who enjoy hunting - this is, after all, my blog and my opinions!)

3 comments:

Cat said...

The man on the property behind us often has his gun out shooting rabbits & pheasants. I must admit that the sound terrifies me - I hate guns with a passion.

Scarey news about the school too.

jugglingpaynes said...

If it makes you feel any better, I know that a lot of hunters are some of the best conservationists. Think Teddy Roosevelt. I myself could never kill an animal. I know that makes me sound hypocritical, since I'm not vegetarian, but there you are. :o)

Guns are a scary sound. We hear them at the nature preserve we go to because there is a shooting range nearby. Even knowing the gunfire is far off, it can still be disconcerting.

Thank you for your email. It was very encouraging!

Peace and Laughter,
Cristina

Paula Vince said...

Gun laws are really strict where we live, which I'm thankful for, and even more thankful that we are homeschoolers.
We have an acquaintance who does have a license to hunt and once brought us the leg of a fawn he'd shot, which made me feel really sad. He'd even labelled it "male fawn" and none of us could bring ourselves to eat and enjoy the meat.
My vegetarian nephew feels really strongly about these issues and tells us all sorts of stories which I'd rather not know.