In the animal world that includes humans, we tend to get caught up in the competition for goodies: territory, water, and plant and animal foods.That sometimes leads us to develop hatred toward rodents or predators who have trouble distinguiishing between natural and husbanded foodstuffs and territories.

I'm a prairie chicken. I was born and grew up in southern Kansas where the sky was all around you. I could see for miles in every direction, and to this day, I feel crowded when I cannot see a lot of sky. My city friends rarely looked up. In the city or in the woods, things happen suddenly. On the prairie, more often, you see what is coming, and with help so far away, you had better pay attention. We didn't have the weather man to warn us.