Warning: A little graphic

I am amazed at how nature takes care of the dead. On Monday evening as I was walking my dog before work I noticed lots of large carrion birds in the trees. I startled them and the trees were groaning and cracking as the birds flew off. I thought it was odd for there to be a flock of carrion birds - I don't often see them together. I walked a few paces more and smelled it.  Looking around I spotted a dead deer in the woods to the right. I don't know how it came to die (hit by a car and dragged itself into the woods?) but the birds were already hard at work and had the intestines spilling out of the animal's abdomen and backside. Morbid curiosity had me standing there at a distance for a few minutes trying to figure out what the animal was and how it might have died. I briefly contemplated it as a cruel Halloween joke. I wondered if I should call the police or someone to get the animal removed.  Then I realized that my dog was not on a leash and he would be very interested in the rotting meat. I back tracked to get him leashed before he could find it.  Tuesday morning revealed fewer birds and a bloodier looking carcass with less flesh.  My leashed dog had a fit wanting to check out the smell but I kept him away.  By Tuesday evening I could see ribs and by this afternoon all that seems to be left are the bones, head and tail.  Today's animal is positioned differently than the last couple days. I guess the wild animals are being thorough. It really does amaze me how quickly the animal was reduced to bones.  The fact that it gets eaten by those disgusting birds makes my skin crawl, but I am thankful that nature has a way of disposing of the rotting meat.  How amazing it is to go from a living, breathing creature to an dead object to nothing but bones in such a short time.

"As a father has compassion on his children,
   so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
   he remembers that we are dust.
The life of mortals is like grass,
   they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
   and its place remembers it no more." Psalm 103:13-16