Little Furry Corpses

[tamaranth]

I've been thinking about little furry corpses* today.

(The cats are fine. Or warm and purry and stretchy, anyway.)

Spring's in the air, the daffodils and primroses are blooming, and the local beasties are coming out of their lairs and taking a deep breath of fresh air: after which (observation suggests) some suicidal urge drives them to frolic on the tarmac, where they quickly become roadkill.

Over the last few days I've seen badgers and rabbits and foxes and squirrels, in various states of death from 'having a rest in the middle of the road' to 'red and bloody ruin'. This is my first encounter, as a driver, with vernal carnage on the roads, and I find it quite distressing. The thought of an animal surviving the autumn and winter and then being killed on the road -- sheer waste, since it's unlikely that the corpse will become dinner for something else! -- is a sad one.

I'm sure there are drivers who don't care if they hit something. Equally, I've encountered some of the most ridiculously cocksure and macho squirrels ever along the Newdigate Road. I swear they're playing chicken. They make schoolchildren look sedate and sensible.

So, today I was driving along, "hello clouds hello sky hello daffodils" etc, and suddenly, going around a blind bend, I had to brake sharply because there was an animal in the road.

In fact there were several.

And they had people on their backs.

People swigging sherry and pints of bitter: people laughing and chatting and, grudgingly, walking their horses back into the pub carpark so that they could graciously permit me to drive along the public highway.

Heaven help any fox that -- unlike the disintegrating corpse on the hardshoulder of the A264 -- has survived the winter, the traffic, the lack of food, the snow. Survival! Spring! And the opportunity to get chased for miles and torn to pieces by a baying pack.

Roadkill's probably a kinder fate, really. And it leaves a prettier corpse.

*This phrase, used by Garry Kilworth in a novel I read recently, has the power to bring tears to my eyes.

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

It's the dead badgers which have grieved me most this Spring thusfar.

[ladymoonray.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean, completely. But I'd say it was probably a drag hunt (where the hounds follow a laid scent trail instead of a fox). I can't promise that, the law is so very full of loopholes it's impossible to tell - but the last couple of meets of the hunt from Nurstead Court have been drag hunts. So they are happening.

[ladymoonray.livejournal.com]

There have been a lot of them, haven't there? I don't know if it's because there's been an explosion in the badger population, or because they're more active as it hasn't been cold, but either way - not good.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

sheer waste, since it's unlikely that the corpse will become dinner for something else

But they do - that's how birds of prey end up as roadkill themselves.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

we've got a lot more magpies because we have more verges, more roads and more magpie. it's a sorrow but not a waste. See Circle of Life and other country saws... hedgehogs BTW have learned not to get run over by changing their behaviour - time for the other beasties to get smart

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

All the way along the A1 to York, and indeed all the way back too, there were dead peasants pheasants by the side of the road. Stupid birds.

When my sister moved to Yorkshire she was warned that she wouldn't be able to avoid hitting an animal with her car. I don't recall if she killed anything or not.

I have yet to hit anything living. I would be very upset if I did. D hit a (would you believe it) pheasant on the way back from Cornwall one year, but there really was no way to avoid it - it was an A-road or motorway, so we were going too fast to stop, and it was busy enough that he couldn't just switch lanes to avoid it. He was upset about it tho'.

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

Oh, and remember, you're not to run over any of the Hunt if you meet them again - it's not the horses fault if their owners like hunting!

[pecos.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad that THIS particular pastime has never caught on in my country. Else I would be out protesting it. I've got foxes living out back - the coyotes give them a run for their money, as it were, and a good time is had by all.

little furry corpses

[slimmeroftheyea.livejournal.com]

a few months ago I was driving down a narrow country road when the car in front hit a fox that had run out. The poor thing was probably killed outright but the impact sent it spinning up and then I hit it as well - couldnt do a thing to stop it. Couldnt swerve because of oncoming traffic and didnt have time to stop. It was probably dead by the time I hit it anyway but was distressing.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

You have won today's most beautiful icon ever award!

In other news - today I saw a kestrel nibbling on some roadkill on the way home. Remember - roadkill means there's still wildlife out there.