Page 19 - Nutshell 3

The grizzled old queen shook her head sadly and wisely.
“You may as well know it now: you are on the menu of creatures
great and small. Without protection, wild canines would gobble you
up like fuzzy snacks; and even if you die without becoming prey
yourselves, tiny creatures will make a multitude of meals of your
remains. You see, even at the top, there is no assurance of keeping
your position indefinitely. And that’s as it should be, because we are
involved in the circle of life. It is easy and convenient to divide up the
rest of the plant and animal kingdoms into predators and parasites,
leaving oneself as the only true symbiont.”
“Who is that?” Furina looked worried. “The king of the jungle?”
“No, my dear. It means an organism that gives as well as takes,
acting as a partner in the panoply of eaters and eatens. If we look at
the whole planet as adjusting constantly to the random ebb and flow
of species, it appears to be a self-regulating system. We are all part of
this grand recycling operation, taking energy from the sun and
expending it in our lives of apparent competition and aggression. But
that dynamic balance will shift too quickly and drastically if one
element suddenly becomes able to eat more and more and more,
consuming everything in sight until it has nothing left to eat and it
can only eat itself. This may be happening right now with people:
their population grows uncontrollably and their appetites get ever
larger.”
“But what can we do about it, Grandcat?” wailed Furkin. “They
control everything!”
“We are doing something about it—don’t worry! The cats are
saving humanity all the time, now. We are key to a new recycling
process, helping to re-establish the wheel of life and prevent the
international economy from collapsing. You know about Luna LLC,
don’t you?”
“Only what I read in the litter box,” said Leonid, triggering a
tinkle of tittering.
Annoyed at the impertinence, Grimalkin gave him a cuff on the
ear. The outburst subsided.
“Luna LLC,” she continued, “is what enables the vast number of
cats to stay alive. It is a gigantic international organization dedicated
to keeping the world as we know it afloat by ensuring resources will
not accumulate in one segment of the necessarily circular movement
and exchange that nature demands for the survival of all. It is