Animal lovers

There are many different kinds of animal lovers. There are those who sympathize with animals out of compassion (even if they don’t quite understand them) , those who understand them because they depend on them for sport or livelihood, and those who love them because they feel a strong, powerful connection to the way animals behave and fit in with nature.
In Prodigal Summer, Eddie Bondo is one who understands animals because they gave his family sustenance, growing up on a sheep farm. He is well versed in what it means to own a farm, to have or perhaps hope for that perfect balance, being “on the edge of busted all the time” (180). His relationship with animals is based on need and want; he hunts coyotes because more coyotes mean less sheep. Also, hunting a predator is on some level an assertion of dominance, more of a thrill and adventure then hunting a mere herbivore such as a deer. When Eddie relates to animals, it is not in a selfless way.
Deanna is a different kind of animal lover. She does not blindly love all animals, as many so-called animal lovers do. She doesn’t even love individual animals; she loves individual species as a whole. She prefers to love animals from a distance. She goes as far as to say she would kill a stray cat if it came into the woods and wreak havoc on the natural forest ecosystem. Deanna shares a connection with animals that consumes her. She understands and justices her feelings about Eddie Bondo by relating to the way animals do. She responds to Eddie’s breath behind her earlobe “like a moth to a flame” (97). The entire chapter is called “Predators” symbolic of many things, one being how Eddie stalks and preys upon Deanna, upon her desire. Deanna is not easy prey; she refuses to trust him, warning him that if he shoots her precious coyote pups, she’ll put a bullet in his leg.