I had to work late yesterday, which meant it was dark when I walked through the park to the tube station. How different that neon, shadowed world was. No squirrels standing tall, demanding peanuts with a combination of menace and cuteness, no pigeons gossiping in groups, no starlings quarreling over the best perch. Just the sussuration of soft shoed feet as the ranks of commuters made their way home.
What a lonely world this would be without animals and birds.
In fact, I sometimes think that one reason for the loneliness that afflicts us human beings, and which drives us to seek companionship in the depths of space, is the latent suspicion that maybe we should be able to speak with our fellow residents. For myself, I have always been vaguely surprised that my cats, or my dog before them, did not answer back. I suspect that is one of the reasons for the popularity of CS Lewis's Narnia books. There things are as they should be: the animals do talk.
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