What kind of animal are you??

This may seem like a question from no particular point of the World-We-Live-In Compass, but I wonder how many of you like wild animals….and if so, with which one(s) you most identify?

Pretty much the only genuinely worthwhile thing to come out of a second marriage was a wife who was potty about safari. After much foot-dragging on my part, she dragged me kicking and screaming to the Zambezi river prior to a 5 am trail drive the next morning.

Within an hour of being in the jeep, I watched a lion kill a warthog – then give the half-munched carcass to his lioness, who then gave the remains to three cubs….such was the strict pecking order.

I was hooked. Not by the blood and guts, but by both instinctive and insistent natural order of the whole tableau.

Before too long, I fell in love with the Giraffe and its [more often her] noble struggle to rise above the disadvantages nature has awarded to that species.

I use the word “noble” advisedly, because despite having thin, gawky legs – and a gob that can’t drink water without a pump in it’s eight-foot neck – the elegance with which the Giraffe moves is not so much poetry in motion as a slow-mo study in how graceful leg-joints can suggest the power that keeps all enemies at bay.

Nothing in the wild fucks with a giraffe…not even the lion. I have seen a female giraffe with three tiny calves (being shadowed by a lip-licking lion) kick the crap out of the King of the Jungle and send the bugger packing.

The triumph over what looks like a vicious and unbeatable adversary is just irresistible. Despite having a build and a dumb-looking face (resembling the kid at school who was always last to be picked by either playground footie team) this seemingly easy prey gets respect from all-comers. Verily I say unto you, we are not worthy.

So that’s me: Giraffe Fan for Life.

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But in a context of the existential challenge faced by our species as we move on from fine Inauguration words to fanatical power-freaks, is there a parallel we can introduce in relation to our task here….that of human nobility triumphing over those who revel in the ‘kill-or-become-extinct’ future they so love to contemplate?

The eternal planetary hegemony these inadequate perverts both crave and demand would be – don’t doubt it for a second – a nightmare horror for everyone of sound mind and emotional sensitivity.

I’ve told you why the make-up and courage of Giraffes is something I’d always want to tap into. But what sort of mythical monster do you think we’re really up against? And what wild-animal equivalent role-model do we need in order to save ourselves from those who see themselves at the top table of zero-rules anything-goes annihilation of “Useless Eaters” without remorse in any shape or form?

Should we be a herd of stampeding buffalo intent on sending Bill Gates to the Happy Hunting Ground? Or should we be crocodiles lying silently in wait for the WHO’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at every opportunity? The joint influence of these two equals and probably exceeds that of any individual world leader….so the element of surprise attack needs to be there whenever we can arrange it.

Personally, I now see the Resistance as being that wonderful animal, the secretive leopard. I’ve only ever seen one – a female with cubs in Namibia – because they are masters of the camouflaged hiding place: beautiful, charismatic, powerful, and mysterious….but above all, unpredictable with an extraordinary explosive strength and speed when needed.

So that’s the image I have of what we are in wildlife terms based on what we need to be doing: Leopards face extinction all the time….and so does Homo sapiens.

I’d like to try and make today’s post as interactive as possible, but obviously WordPress isn’t going to cooperate with that idea.

So tell me: what’s your favourite wild animal, and does the idea of being a leopard at large appeal to you?

If you have difficulty in posting, email your thread comment to me on [email protected] and I’ll post it for you manually.

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In the meantime, do good stuff and follow good deeds…. Take a trip to the Goodnet site, and see what this remarkable organisation is up to in myriad ways to show genuine empathy to others in distress.

Good Deeds Day, an annual global day of doing good, is the pinnacle of doing good year-round. Initiated in 2007 by business woman and philanthropist Shari Arison, Good Deeds Day has grown to 115 countries with millions of participants.

Good Deeds day this year falls on April 6th, but we can all start now “by doing one kind act a week”. On that basis, Goodnet has compiled a selection of 52 good deeds that will help you make the world a better place.

As ever, the message from The Slog remains the same: vigilance and empathy will bring the New World Order crashing down sooner rather than later. This is more positive than “don’t lose hope”: from here on, it’s “We’re the Good Grown-Up People refusing to give up our humanity”.

Source: https://therealslog.com/2025/01/22/what-kind-of-animal-are-you/