I feel like I am living in the wild. As I sit here, I hear what sounds like a cry for help from a dog or baby wolf. It’s been going on for a good 15 minutes. I looked out the window but it’s pitch dark.
I don’t know what’s going on with that animal but it surely is a distress call. Is someone trying to kill it, hurting it, or is it lost and calling for its mother? My heart is filled with compassion and worry.
Tonight at 7 pm, I went to Macy’s and bought a bottle of my favorite perfume. The shopping mall closes at 7 but Macy’s closes at 8. I was there at 6:45 pm not knowing that the mall would close its gates at exactly 7 pm. The sun was still up but as soon as I got my perfume, I decided to just leave. Much as I wanted to go around the department store, I didn’t like the feeling na magsasara na sila in a few minutes, para akong maiihi pag ganun.
As I drove home, just before I go up the hill, I had to stop because there was a wild turkey crossing the street. I wish I had a video. It was so cool to look at the turkey walking on the street. It was not the first time that this happened. Sometimes there were two or four.
This afternoon, Edmund and I were picking up some trashes that were blown away from the garbage truck. We saw a deer just behind our backyard fence. It ran away when that beautiful creature saw us.
Around 6 pm while I was speaking to my sister on the phone, while I was looking out the window, I saw a fox running below.
Sounds of woodpeckers, owls, deers, hummingbirds, and cows, reach our ears. We are located at the end of a street right beside a regional park. I worry about wildfire but to cut down those big, old oak trees would mean lesser habitat for our friendly animal neighbors. Oh, there are snakes too. Edmund saw one and he pukpuk one small one but it turned out to be a big lizard, not a snake. I feel guilty living here. I feel like we, humans, are encroaching on the mountaintops that are reserved for the wild.
Thousands of century-year-old oak trees must have been felled by real estate developers to build homes on the hills.
Last night on our way home, I saw a dead reindeer lying on the side of the freeway. Nakakaawa. Nasagasaan yan.
If I were 20 years younger, I would definitely move to a vineyard somewhere in the valley. And if I were a billionaire, I would buy thousands and thousands of acres everywhere, let the wild animals live there peacefully, and protect them from modern civilization. I will create an oasis for birds, and other animals too.
Ohhhh, I no longer hear the sound of crying dog or wolf. Two things, maybe it’s okay now. Or maybe it’s dead. Oh God, I hope not.
It’s almost midnight, I hear an owl. Edmund said pag daw ganun ang sound ng owl ibig sabihin tumatawag yun ng girls.
