Hi everyone,

There have been many situations lacking a good Samaritan. Mike, thank you so much for stepping in--and on more than one occasion.

Bonnie, I understand your concern about the "heart of darkness" in the comment you read, especially when applied to relatively docile animals. When I first read this, I immediately thought of wild animals such as lions and tigers that attack zebras and others, which saddens me very much--just as people attacking each other. Many times, animals may do it out of necessity for food but probably not always. Here in our back yard, we speculated that a coyote probably left a goose (which we get many types of here during the year) dead and decapitated. Although I normally don't consider a cat a wild animal (and, of course, feed many and love them), recently the neighborhood cat was going after a very small, young goose who could hardly walk. I don't know what the cat would have done, but I imagined it wouldn't have been pretty. I encouraged the goose to get into the water and the cat to get away. I prayed a lot for that one, as it seemed that the other geese had abandoned him, at least at that moment. I probably wouldn't think of the cat as having a "heart of darkness", but I didn't want the little goose to be part of what may have just been the cat's instinct.

I fully expect the lion and the lamb to be lying down together someday, but I also think that any "heart of darkness" or whatever else it may be called resulted from the fall of man. All hell breaking loose wasn't the picture in the beginning in the Garden of Eden. I also don't see the "heart of darkness" in many animals. Even lions and tigers no doubt have many moments of kindness and affection for each other. Hardened criminals may have a tiny speck of goodness left. I hope that I haven't offended anyone, and I hope this makes sense.

Betty

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