Have you noticed that Nature can be lacking in compassion and somewhat inconsiderate of the effect of its actions? You’d think a ‘Mother’ would have it much better worked out than some things we find in Nature.
This weekend we had a lovely time at the farm. The lady who owns the farm is away for a couple of weeks and we are looking after her dog. Part of the responsibility is to visit the farm at least once a week to make sure the horses and cattle are OK and the plants are watered. For us, this means we get to have a couple of weekends in the country – delightful.
On the way home on Sunday afternoon the queue for the ferry was extensive. We waited for nearly an hour just to get onto the ferry. This was due to a boat race on the Hawkesbury River which meant the ferries didn’t operate.
That wasn’t so bad; it was very pleasant weather and we had a supply of snacks with us so it was a pleasant time just hanging out. As there wasn’t anything we could do about it an attitude of “let’s relax and enjoy the scenery” worked well for us.
Unfortunately our dog, Sancho, doesn’t do “relax” at a time when there are interesting things to explore. For him, what we considered a pleasant, relaxing environment was a place to be thoroughly investigated.
Here’s where our clash with Nature happened.
Now, I understand that plants have evolved a number of ways to spread their seeds, ensuring they get spread around as wide an area as possible. I can accept that, but why do they have to use vicious needle-sharp seeds to do it?
The plants I’m talking about are grasses whose seeds are very hard and sharp and have a little grappling hook like device on one end. This has been designed perfectly to get embedded in the fur of any passing animal.
Sancho has soft, reasonably long hair and so is an ideal carrier for these seeds. He performed his evolutionary responsibilities perfectly, getting himself covered in needle-like prickles.
This is excellent for the grass and it’s now happily being carried across the countryside. The problem is that these seeds are so hard and so sharp they behave like tiny needles.
We’ve previously had a situation where Sancho had a grass seed in his foot. It had embedded itself so deeply he needed surgery to have it removed.
I’ve also heard of a case where a dog had a seed work its way through the dog’s belly and into its internal organs.
As I said, I understand Nature’s need to spread the seeds around, but why do it in such a way as to be harmful for the carrier? After all, if the carrier doesn’t survive long the seed won’t get very far. (On the other hand, the inner organs of a dead dog would probably be an excellent place for grass to grow.) Wouldn’t it be much more considerate and compassionate of Mother Nature (after all she’s the one responsible for this) to have seeds that are soft and round and are designed to fall off after a few kilometres? Something to discuss with the system designer when we get to find out who or what that is!
With these ‘delightful’ thoughts running through my mind, on arriving home I did a thorough examination of Sancho. He squirmed a bit but was generally pretty calm so I think he knew what was going on. I had to check every inch of him. From my perspective, I got to know Sancho’s body to a much more intimate extent than I’m really happy with.
So, next time we have to wait for the ferry and he wants to go exploring he’ll just have to check out the road. Nature is just too hard to deal with.