Food Chain

I saw a big black cat, early this morning. Right under my bedroom window. A guilty thing, with a baby rabbit in it's jaws. It could barely carry it. The rabbit's eyes shivering. No other movement. Rigid with fear. In hell. A wake up call for the sleepy me. A harsh slap in the face. Reality.

Maybe the cat would have left it's victim behind, had I scared it into the bush. Should I have attempted to save the baby? Was it already gone? Could it see me? The looming voyeur. It's a difficult one. Maybe if I'd have hissed at the cat and checked up on the discarded bunny, I'd have discovered it was just shitting itself, but not in too bad a shape. But then what? Try and catch it? Take it back to the field which it MIGHT have come from? Leave it there? Wave goodbye? Hope it's Mum finds it? Pat myself on the back? Or what if it had been injured? I wouldn't have been able to fix it. I was already running late for work, I'm not a vet, and even if I was, it's a baby wild animal. A rubix puzzle of tiny bones. It would mean keeping it, or at least finding a shelter. Also, what if it was horrifically injured? For all I know the rest of it's face was missing! I've had to kill animals in the past, to put them out of their misery. It's not the easiest thing to do. And this wasn't just any animal. Pigeons, for instance, are quite easy to snuff out. But it was a little bunny rabbit! The cuter the animal, the harder it is to execute. One of the harsher truths. After about a minute of following the cat through the undergrowth my common sense dictated "Leave nature to take it's course.", much to the disapointment of my consience. And I was left wondering whether it was now being tortured to death. And I was left wondering whether it even mattered.