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I went one Saturday to the hardware store to buy a rope hammock like the one I so much enjoyed while vacationing in the Cayman Islands. While there I picked up a hanging bird feeder and some seed. What more could one ask from life than to lay in a hammock in one's own back yard and watch the birds feed. I hung that hammock, filled the birdfeeder, then lowered it from a high branch with a thin wire, and went inside for lunch.

Shortly I returned to try out the hammock. Shockingly, there was a squirrel rocking that bird feeder back and forth and spilling the seed. Its buddy on the ground looked like he had the mumps from all of my seed he had in its cheeks. I ran those boys off and settled in for a nap.

It wasn't long until the racket woke me up and the two squirrels were back and this time they brought reinforcements. OK, boys! "I am King of this castle" .....well, the backyard anyway. .... You mess with the bull you're going to get the horn. Back to the hardware store and I was the proud owner of a pellet gun like the one I had when I was a kid.

I entered the war zone with much confidence as I had been a rifle instructor in the army. I didn't want to kill the squirrels so I only pumped the gun once and that was enough to put a sting on their butts. It didn't take me long and I managed to push back that Mongol horde to the trees in my neighbor's yard. From there they barked and hollered at me. "Comeback. Just you comeback. Go ahead. Make my day", I thought.

Things quieted down, and I went inside knowing that I had not only won the battle, but the war as well. Still..... the undeeeeeefeated "King".

I rose early the next morning, drank my coffee, and browsed the Sunday paper. Remembering the hammock, I made my way to my sanctuary  to gaze upon my domain. There..Shock.."The Horror of It All" was my hammock. Its ropes had been viciously chewed in two, in thirty three places no less.... I learned my lessons quickly.

Do animals have high intelligence? Do they feel and show emotion? Do they have "free will"? How about the "right" to roam freely? Did they have a right to those seeds? You betcha! What made me so special, that I could determine who should get my seeds? And were they really my seeds. Ownership of God's gifts are only transparent anyway.

I once conversed with an animal rights activist about human abuse of animals. I pointed out that I thought the underlying problem was that man thinks he is special and superior to the other creatures and many times they when they do things in the names of animals they are really only doing something for themselves.. "Oh but we are superior" she replied. "Why, we are made in God's image and animals are not" Huh, what? I was confused..... Ah, I got it. She musta meant God was made in man's image.

Special? We want to be special? Then we need to act special. Why? Because....... As my friend Forest Gump would say. "Special is as Special does".

bobby jennings is co-publisher of InnerSelf Publications and webmaster of InnerSelf.com. Originally a Democrat for many years, he moved to the Republican party in the mid 1980's and the Green Party in 2000. He now supports common sense initiatives from all parties and votes independently in the general elections. He supports small efficient honest government, government managed capitalism, an independent judiciary, religious tolerance, as well as social and economic justice. He is an ex-Army officer and retired small business owner. He best describes himself as a now extinct "Eisenhower Republican".

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