I read in the paper that this year’s numbers of migrating Monarch butterflies is so far below any of the numbers in recorded history that it may be the last year these creatures make the journey at all. The loss of native vegetation due to industrial farming of the prairies may be to blame. Etta and I brought Marcia to the Magic Hedge, a bird and butterfly sanctuary on Lake Michigan, to see the late autumnal sun go sink west into the skyline.
She wrapped herself in an old beach blanket from the trunk of the car. We went into the brown, orange and sea green looking for rabbits. We saw a couple small grey ones: not the blond behemoth that must be lurking underground. Marcia picked up some dried pods and shook them like a medicine woman as the three of us walked back to the car.
Go vegan, stop growing plants to process through animals and save those butterflies’ habitat.