golden retriever versus chipmunk

At least a couple times per week, I like to walk around my yard and take photos of the little creatures and things that are ordinarily abundant, but often unnoticed. When I photograph them, it allows me to alter the ordinary into something extraordinary. I highly value the living things that inhabit my surroundings and would like to help others realize how much beauty and purpose nature has to offer. I also believe that it is important to be conscious of how irreplaceable and fragile it is.

Speaking of fragility, to my horror, my golden retriever, who appears harmless, caught and ate a chipmunk before my very eyes while I was taking photos. I assume that there will be laughter upon reading this, and I do understand the humor in it. I mean, seriously. Picture a fluffy family dog happily chowing a chippy like a chew toy. But it is also stunning and terrible and real. Death is just...death. It happens and it can come so quickly and unexpectedly. Even if it is just a rodent. The circulation of life and death is unwavering and brutal. Time stops for the victim when death consumes, but keeps eerily going on for the rest of us, whether we can recover quickly or not. This incident just really resonated with me personally, as well as the thematic content for my artwork. It is important to me to preserve life and nature to the best of my ability and I think this is usually evident in my art. Yep. I got all of that from my dog eating a chipmunk. And, no, I did not take pictures of this particular incident. I was too horrified and there was too much blood involved. Anyways, here are the pictures: