麻豆社

What happened this winter? The wind whips around my paws and past my ears, making them twitch uncontrollably at all the sounds in the distance.

My claws dig deeper into the damp moss underfoot as I watch the devastating scene unfold.

I stare solemnly at the barren landscape that used to be covered with lush forests and greenery at every point of the compass. The barren landscape I used to call home.

Only seconds before, I was out hunting, for I was hungry as winter is hastily approaching.

As I emerge from the beautiful landscape, expecting to find even more beauty beyond, instead seeing trees cut down.

I shoot round and race back into the wilderness as of being chased, but everywhere I turn, there is a dead end of machinery and an abrupt stop to the peaceful forest.

‘They’ll cut it all down soon’ I think to myself, not wanting to think too far into the future, every made up story ending in darkness.

Soon it will snow, and with the trees dropping like flies, there’ll be no squirrels, or rabbits, or little birds to feed on.

In the spring I will have cubs, and no shelter to the wind or the rain, or to other hungry predators.

My small head is bursting with worried thoughts into the next years. What if the trees never come back?

I find myself crouched beside a ditch, the bright orange sun sinking in the sky, casting colours of reds, oranges and pinks along the horizon, making everything a little bit nicer.

I decide to take in the destruction of the trees, sitting at the boundary of the harmonic thicket watching the sun engulf the pyramids of trunks. I believe they call this, deforestation.