On Karma and Dead Raccoons

"Intention, monks, is karma, I say.  Having willed, one acts through body, speech and mind." - the Buddha

This morning, when I let the dogs out, there was more commotion than usual.  Immediately, they disappeared behind the shed. I figured they were chasing squirrels, which is typical, and harmless, as the squirrels are much faster (and dare I say smarter) than the dogs. Imagine my surprise, then, when seconds later a panicked Django barreled past with an adult raccoon hanging off his side. As I rushed towards the two of them, the raccoon released herself and retreated to the top of our fence. At that moment, I noticed Jade had a baby raccoon in his jaws and was alternately shaking it violently and driving it into the ground. Somehow, and it is all a blur to me, I got Jade to drop the raccoon and got all of the dogs back inside. When I came out, I had made it in time to see the baby draw it's last breath. Impermanence surrounds us.

I called my wife, still pretty freaked out by the whole ordeal, trying to figure out what to do next. She headed home immediately to assist. I then left a message for my boss that is probably one of the more unusual ones she has received: "I'm going to be a little late. The dogs got into a family of raccoons and now I have a bit dog (it turns out this was not true) and a dead raccoon on my hands."

As I waited for my wife to return home, I watched from inside the house as the mother raccoon came back for her baby and carried the lifeless body over the fence and into the underbrush.

When my wife came home, mother raccoon watched us from a tree as we examined the dogs for wounds. We found none. If you could have seen mother raccoon in that tree, you would know that they too feel loss.

For whatever reason, I find myself connected the woes of the local raccoon population.  A few weeks ago, I wrote about a dinner party in which the host bragged of bludgeoning one to death, for no real reason. This act, if  it indeed happened as described, was an example of how one accumulates bad karma. The actor in that story struck the animal with intent to harm, to kill, for no real reason (whether it is ever ok is the subject of intense debate and gives the dharmaspoon guy a headache to even think about. he worries it's a pretty slippery slope). 

 

In today's story my own actions set in course a chain of events resulting in the death of a baby raccoon.  The karmic difference between the two stories is that in the earlier story, there was intent with malice. In this story, there was no intent on my part and only the inborn predatory response on the dog's part.

Today I am thankful that the dogs seem to be uninjured, the baby passed quickly, and hopefully you now have a good example of the same outcome from two different karmic paths (would rather have just had a hard time coming up with a topic instead of being "given" this example).

Off to the vet for Rabies booster shots...